SUMMARY
2022
No conflicts were active in Saudi Arabia in 2022, and hasn't been for several years. The country has however regularly suffered from spill-over violence from its involvement as a secondary-warring party in the war over government in Yemen, where Saudi Arabia was the main international backer of the Forces of the Presidential Leadership Council (formerly Forces of Hadi). The Ansarallah/Houthi Government of Yemen, an ally of Saudi Arabia's regional rival Iran, regularly sends missiles and drones into Saudi Arabia as vengeance for its airstrikes against it in Yemen. The pace of such attacks decreased in 2022, due to a ceasefire for much of the year in Yemen, and talks held between Saudi Arabia and Ansarallah.
Foundation of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
The historical roots of Saudi Arabia can be traced back to a 1744 compact between the leader of the Saud clan and the religious sheikh Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab, both based in the Najd area near present-day Riyadh. Al-Wahhab was the founder of a Salafi revivalist movement which denounced all rational interpretation (ijtihad) and innovation in Islamic jurisprudence and tradition, preaching a literal adherence only the Qur'an and hadith. This meant the rejection of all traditions stemming from the time after the Companions of Muhammed. The Saudi - Wahhabi compact provided the house of Saud with legitimacy and authority within a framework of Islamic orthodoxy as determined by religious leaders.
Following defeats by tribal rivals, the Saud family was forced into exile in Kuwait in the late 19th century. In 1902, Abd al-Aziz ibn Saud reconquered the Saud clan's old capital, Riyadh, leading to the establishment of the third Saudi state. The conquests would continue for another three decades, resulting in the proclamation of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia within the the territory of present-day country in 1932, with ibn Saud as its first absolute monarch. The most important conquest was that of the holy cities of Medina and Mecca in 1925, ending 700 years of Hashemite rule of the Hejaz, and imbuing the Saudi monarchy with additional religious authority and global importance. The millions of muslims that each year travels to Mecca for the annual Hajj and for study has spread Wahhabism around the world.
In 1928, the Saudi alliance with its Wahhabi militia, a central component of the forces that allowed ibn Saud to conquer most of the central Arabian Peninsula, split following disagreement over interactions with westerners, specifically a royal ban on raiding neighboring British protectorates. Despite the breakdown of the military alliance, Wahhabi thought retained its influential role for legitimitizing the authoritarian government established in the kingdom. The independent Saudi Arabia has maintained an extremely conservative legal code based on Wahhabi interpretation of Sharia.
Oil, American presence and religious tensions
Following the discovery of oil in 1938, the country grew in riches and developed a close relationship with USA. As the superpower rivalry during the Cold War increased political tensions in the Middle East during the 1960s, the Saudi state promoted its religious credentials and increased the funding of Islamic organizations. This led to the development of two strands of Islamism in the country: the so-called “awakening” (al-sahwa al-islamiyya) movement which became the Saudi mainstream, and a smaller movement that argued in favor of literal readings of religious texts and rejection of modernity.
The latter approach became popular among poor religious students in Medina who formed the JSM (al-Jama’a al-Salafiyya al-Muhtasiba, the Salafi groups which practices hisba – the observance of Islamic practices) concerned with moral and religious reform in the mid-1960s. Following a split in the organization in 1977, it became increasingly radical under Juhayman al-‘Utaybi who denounced the authority of the Saudi government. On 20 November 1979, JSM attacked and seized control over the great mosque in Mecca, taking thousands of worshippers hostage. This was followed by a two week intrastate conflict until the government defeated the JSM forces.
The presence of foreign nationals in Saudi Arabia as part of the oil exploration and as part of several defence assistance initiatives has been controversial and has caused opposition to the regime. Such tensions increased with the massive American military build-up in Saudi Arabi in preparation for the Gulf War following the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in 1990. Al-Qaida was one such organization which deeply resented the US presence in the "land of the two mosques" (Mecca and Medina). In 2003-2004, there were several one-sided attacks on foreign workers by al-Qaida. See the one-sided violence dyad al-Qaida - civilians, for more information about these attacks. IS carried out attacks against civilians in Saudi Arabia in 2015-2016 (see IS - Civilians).
Saudi Arabia provided secondary support to Kuwait against Iraq in the interstate conflict 1991. The country also supported USA in the conflict against al-Qaida following a series of one-sided attacks on American and other foreign civilians in Saudi Arabia in 2003. Parts of the conflict was fought in Saudi territory, in particular in 2004.
A Saudi-led coalition on 26 March 2015 launched airstrikes against the new Ansarallah Government of Yemen, in support of Forces of Hadi. For more information see Government of Yemen - Forces of Hadi.
Since 1946 Saudi Arabia has experienced the intrastate and one-sided categories of UCDP organized violence.
