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‘No question will be more decisive for the Middle East and the Islamic world, as for the stability of the global energy market, than the future of Saudi Arabia. After eight decades, the old order cannot continue to hold, as pressures from within and without accumulate, and the young, now a majority, aspire to a future that avoids equally the paralysis of the present and the turmoil of other neighbours. Hitherto we have analysed Saudi Arabia through a dark glass.No question will be more decisive for the Middle East and the Islamic world, as for the stability of the global energy market, than the future of Saudi Arabia. After eight decades, the old order cannot continue to hold, as pressures from within and without accumulate, and the young, now a majority, aspire to a future that avoids equally the paralysis of the present and the turmoil of other neighbours. Hitherto we have analysed Saudi Arabia through a dark glass. Now, in what is perhaps the first direct investigation of what Saudis really think, we can read, in convincing detail, of the changes taking place within this society. The result is a picture at once compelling and challenging.? Professor Fred Halliday, London School of Economics