Inside The Mirage: America's Fragile Partnership With Saudi Arabia Paperback – May 10, 2005

Distressingly rational. Foreign policy directed by egomaniacs who imagine that everyone wants to be like them and that force can make them that way.

Thomas Lippman has provided a prescient discussion of the long and interconnected relationship between the United States and Saudi Arabia. This relationship has been among the forefront of the problems U.S. policymakers have been reexamining since 9/11, and is among one of the most complicated of the U.S.'s bilateral relationships today.At the turn of the 20th century the area that is now Saudi Arabia was then a disparate mixture of clans soon to be united by Abdul Aziz ibn Saud. The lifestyles of the inhabitants of the land were not much different than their ancestors from millennia before. Within a few years a relationship would be started that would change the world.The first American geologists came to Saudi Arabia in the early 1930s. These geologists first found oil in 1933 and found the first large and profitable oil fields in 1938. From the time of that first large discovery of oil on, the U.S. and Saudi would a close mutual relationship. The Arab American Oil Company, or Aramco, was set up to extract the new oil finds. In exchange, the Americans were charged with creating a modern, industrial society in the Kingdom. For the next 60 years, American government officials, private contractors, and the U.S. military would undertake projects that would lead to such things as a modern infrastructure for moving oil out of the ground and the country (Aramco, Bechtel), would establish the Saudi national airline (TWA), create a modern civil service (the Ford Foundation). In addition, U.S. government officials helped establish a paper currency and a central bank. In addition, since 1951, U.S. policy has been to recognize the protection of Saudi Arabia from outside threats as a vital national interest. This policy meant supplying military equipment and training for five decades and condoning harsh treatment of Saudi dissidents or those who long for many of the freedoms Americans hold dear, such as freedom of religion and speech.U.S. Middle East policy, including the invasion of Iraq, the inability of the Saudi leadership to create the conditions for its newly educated young people to find jobs, and other issues are all swirling to create conditions inimical to the continuation of this marriage of convenience. While Lippman is unable to provide answers or speculation about the future, he has provided a valuable service by giving a remarkably balanced telling the story of the long, complicated relationship.

Tom Lippman is an engaging REFRESHING voice in the conversation surrounding Saudi. I really loved his journalistic views and surprising insights about the kingdom. He's also very frank about the reality of the u.s. saudi relationship dynamics and explains the context of the u.s. relationship as a very neo-realist scenario. love alll of his writing and his Youtube videos. very engaging speaker

If you want to understand US and Saudi Arabia relationship this book is the one to buy. Writing is intelligent and interesting.

Very informative! This book deserves more attention than it has received. Well written!

The Chinese and Indian societies are two of the oldest, continuously-existing societies in the history of man. Both share many similarities; one of which is that in either society, when one enters into a business arrangement with another person, it often involves a comingling of families such that the spouses get to know each other, the children get to know each other, and so on and so forth. Many Americans find this to be quite difficult to handle upon first encounters. For example, many Americans doing business in China are quickly frustrated how their Chinese business partners request positions for their family members and friends. Though it seems cumbersome, this type of arrangement serves a very useful purpose; it helps each group get to know the other group better, thereby reducing the chances of surprises down the road.By this example, we can now examine the US-Saudi relationship over the past ~80 years, and specifically how it is portrayed in this book. In short, the US has had a very special relationship with Saudi Arabia, and one that is built on mutual ignorance. Specifically, when oil was discovered in the Saudi desert, American companies were so quick to get it flowing out and to the market, that neither side had the time to learn about each others cultures, norms, values, etc... Yes, many American geologists learned Arabic and some even became Muslim. Yes, many Arabs went on to work in America and send their children to American schools. But overall, this exchange of ideas was limited to a small minority, even within the expatriate community of each side. American oil workers lived in their own neighborhoods in Saudi Arabia, and Arabs in America tend to be concentrated in a few cities; i.e. Detroit. The relationship was essentially all business. But like any relationship between two persons or two countries, nothing is ever all business; politics sooner or later gets involved. In America's case, the vast majority of Americans were so ignorant of Saudi-American relations, that the terrorist attacks of 9-11-2001 came as such a big surprise.This book shows the extent of the American - Saudi relationship at various levels in business, politics, and military relations. It shows how Saudis and Americans related and dealt with each other's cultures and persons in both American and Saudi Arabia. These including interesting stories of how Saudi women first learned about the bra; by seeing it on the wives of American oil executives and geologists. This book also shows the lack of understanding between the two cultures and peoples, and how this is often the unstated goal of the governments of both countries; out of sight - out of mind.This book does not go too much into Osama Bin Laden, Wahabism, Al Queda, or the extent of terrorism in Saudi Arabia. Instead, it is more of a primer on American - Saudi relations. Overall, a good book to read.

Good book to understand differences in american and Saudi way of life.Very well documented by a professionnal journalistRobert, Montreal

I was particularly attracted to the title, expecting a strategic analysis of USA power vs. Saudi oil with the influences of different cultures and religions but I was disappointed. For me it didn't quite deliver, while it was a very enjoyable read and I never had trouble picking it up I was disappointed because 2/3rds of the book seems to have been taken from Aramco's advertising jargon. The writer has us believe that Aramco were altruistic in their approach to the oil exploration which I don't believe for one minute. Aramco were hard business and the attraction to Saudi was profit and driving the bottom line.Some of the stories that appear in most books on Saudi are also included here which also lessened its efficacy and while the book makes mention of Aramco treating the Saudi's employees not as equals then the writer could have carried out research to find that Aramco had classifications for employment based on your nationality, American first, Europeans second, third nationals and others but perhaps this isn't politically correct to now mention this. In fact the author seemed afraid to dig too deep or cover controversial issues.I guess this is why I had trouble with the book it's all too politically correct and not realistic in his explanations of the relationship between USA and Saudi. The alliance I suggest is based upon power both economic and military, the USA with its military might and Saudi on its oil and money but Lipmann only touched the surface on this suggesting that there are sometimes troubled times but on the whole everyone gets on.I don't accept this simplistic approach, the USA will wield its power and in return Saudi will use its cunning and guile to rebut and lessen the USA's influence. I guess I have been influenced by reading the Confessions of an Economic Hit Man which lead me to this book and I'm glad I did read this book first otherwise I might have been taken in by Lipmann's view.Lippman tells us he has been visiting Saudi for 35 years and has interviewed numerous Saudis and Americans but then I question why Lippman has not managed to give us a more strategic and detailed view of how the USA uses its power and how the Saudis respond to it and how they get what they want in return. Contracting in the early days was all about logistics, importing plant and material into the country as the infrastructure hadn't been built and now the infrastrutcure is better now there is less reliance upon American contractors.I was left with a big question which was not covered by the author and that is what happens in the future. The religious issues wasn't really covered and I got the impression that the author has a lot more to give on the whole topic after all what else would he be talking about on his visits to the Kingdom.Another missed opportunity I'm afraid but maybe the author is more concerned about not being too critical, taking the middle ground so as not to offend both the Saudis and America.This book has just left me wanting to know more about what the relationship is really about as this book doesn't do it for me in this respect.