SAUDI ARABIA'S HISTORY

Analysis of Modernization of Sport, Nation-State Building and International Relations in Saudi Arabia

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Analysis of Modernization of Sport, Nation-State Building and International Relations in Saudi Arabia

History

Saudi Arabia, the most sacred place for Muslims was the place where the second largest religion of the world 'Islam' was founded. Although the current boundaries of Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was defined in 1932, by the unification of two Kingdoms Hejaz and Nejd, which today is known as Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Covering mostly the arid desert or rocky infertile land Saudi Arab is the largest country of Middle East. The political system of Saudi Arabia is an absolute monarchy with the King as head of government, states and chairman of the Council of Ministers. But the power of King is restricted by Islamic law: The King does not pass any laws; he only issues royal decrees in accord with the Sharia (Islamic Law). Since 1986 an additional duty marked to the King as he is also the custodian of the Two Holy Mosques. (Al-Gahtani, Hubona and Wang, 2007, pp. 681-691)

Gender roles in the society come from Sharia and ancestral culture. The Arabian Peninsula is the inherited home of patriarchal, nomadic tribes, in which purdah (separation of men and women) and namus (honor) are essential. The country has an economy which is based on oil with strong control of the government over chief financial activities. It possesses 25 percent of the overall world oil reserves, and ranks as the biggest exporter of oil, and also plays most important function in OPEC. The country's economy is a centrally designed economy. Saudi government regulates the private enterprises. (Abu-Ghazzeh 1997, 332-335)

Political System of Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia certainly demonstrates a role protagonist in the Middle East area and on the other hand, is having features needed to capture the attention of other countries, such as a geographical location and a natural resource with great benefits, as it has cheap oil. The current situation in the world, with a change in international relations after the terrorist attacks of September 11 the United States and proclamation of the war on terror launched by President George W. Bush, marks the beginning of a new stage in the relations between the countries. (Child 2002, pp. 1805—1821)

Saudi Arabia is a country whose analysis is important because of its geographical location, since it is as we know in the Middle East zone, an area that for several years is the focus of world attention. Twenty-five percent of global reserves are an essential factor when framing the Saudi kingdom in a plane of importance within the international actual current context. Also, Saudi Arabia presented a foreign policy close to U.S. issues especially economic, trade and cooperation development of the Kingdom, it was enough to arouse the curiosity among the Islamic world because Saudi Arabia has within its political and social organization, the school of Islam is more conservative. (Tim 2006, pp. 47-67) Situation of more conservative wing of Islam has seen this issue as problematic ...