Saudi Arabia entered the twenty-first century with real problems. Its ageing leadership, growing national debt, economic slowdown, rising unemployment and shrinking welfare services combined to pose a serious challenge. One of the wealthiest states in the region – and the world – failed to contain the rapid increase in population and resulting preponderance of a cohort of young men and women, all frustrated at the limited prospect of finding employment. The festivities of the late twentieth century masked the gaps in uneven regional development programmes and the fermenting Islamist dissent.

This dissent culminated, not in Saudi Arabia, but in New York, on the morning of Tuesday 11 September 2001. Among those who attacked the World Trade Center were fifteen young Saʿudi men, who had been drawn to the global jihadi movement under the leadership of another Saʿudi, Usama Bin Laden, and an Egyptian, Ayman al-Zawahiri. Two years later, jihad came home to haunt the Saʿudi leadership and kill hundreds of Saʿudis in the streets of Riyadh, Jeddah, Mecca and Dammam.

The world was stunned, not by Bin Laden's involvement, as he had previously announced his intentions to launch a war against Christians and Jews, dubbed the ‘new crusades’, but by the participation of young Saʿudi men, long known for their acquiescence, respect of authority and deference to their leadership and religious scholars. More than any other historical event, 9/11 announced the beginning of a new era for Saudi Arabia.