MBS by Ben Hubbard is a journalistic investigation into the public life of the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammad Bin Salman Al Saud that can be easily used as a a further basis for academic research into the Kingdom history and everyday life.
After reading the well documented book - both from the journalistic as well as the academic point of view - by Kim Ghattas covering the rivalry between Saudi Arabia and Iran I had relatively high expectations about Hubbard book. However, from many points of view it does not go beyond the news scren and the information that were already published in the international media about the Kingdom and its enigmatic Crown Prince. For instance, the case of the princes kept hostages in the Ritz Carlton or the killing of the journalist Jamal Kashoggi (which is covered in several chapters which is fine, but in my opinion the information could have been easily covered in one or maximum two, not because it is not relevant, but for simple reasons pertaining to the economics of the writing as such).
By far, the final chapter, which puts into balance the good and the bad sides of the MBS dream of Saudi Arabia, is the most interesting and offers many directions for a further historical and political science investigation: the complete restructuration of the nature of power in the Kingdom, the elimination of the centers of power created by various members of the Royal House, starting the process of diminishing the influence of the clerics on the monarchy, the probable raprochement with the Jewish state. It is a pragmatic rather than an ideological approach which leaves open the long-term commitment and the degree of predictability of the Middle East political map.
Probably I had high expectations from this book given its publicity and my own curiosity to finally find a good source to understand Saudi Arabia and its ruler. Hopefully, there will be more books and researches on this topic coming up in the next months and years, with a more serious, researched basis.
I´ve listened to the audio version of the book.
Rating: 3 stars
