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-American bilateral summit meetings between presidents and prime ministers, informal ambassadorship by the royal family, and the forthcoming 400th anniversary of the Mayflower voyage in 2020. The objective is to complement traditional readings of pageantry by treating it also as an act of cultural sharing. Thereby, and consonant with Iriye’s classic definition of culture, elites send messages to Anglo-American – and other – audiences by manipulating cultural artifacts, evoking emotions, appealing to particular symbols and lifestyles, sharing selected aspects of collective memory
. The step change in push-back, counter-revolutionary or what may be called ‘pro-stability’ initiatives in Saudi Arabia and the UAE has been especially targeted against Islamist movements supported by Iran, Qatar and Turkey. This was accompanied by a change of leadership in the UAE in 2014 as Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan took over as de facto ruler of the UAE following the incapacitation of his father, Khalifa bin Zayed al Nahyan, from a stroke. Mohammed bin Zayed became head of state in May 2022 after the death of Sheikh Khalifa, securing Al-Nahyan as the royal
have Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser assassinated. This set a precedent for a brief but difficult stand-off between the Al Saud royal family with Wahhabi clergy support, and King Saud, before power was ultimately transferred to Crown Prince Faisal. 14 During King Faisal's reign, Saudi Arabia invested heavily in promoting Islam through charitable funds and religious institutions in the kingdom, such as the Muslim World League established by King Faisal as an outreach organisation to clarify the true message of
traditional sectarian, tribal and family assabiya to create cores of trusted followers around the leader similar to royal families in the monarchies. (3) In their search for legitimisation, state elites made use of sub- and supra-state identities to make up for thin popular identifications with the state itself. In the monarchies patriarchal loyalties and Islam were the favoured formula; in the republics Pan-Arabism, the official ideology, was buttressed by the exploitation of sub-state loyalties, whether it was Tikriti solidarity in Iraq or that of
that reshaped Anglo-American relations between the Great Rapprochement and the First World War? Did Anglo-American collective memory influence the decisions to use military force in Kosovo and Iraq? Did trends in British pop music help alter American society in the 1960s? What do school textbooks reveal about the cultural underpinnings of the special relationship? What have television dramas and the film industry to do with the history of US–UK relations? How have the royal family, memorials to George Washington, and the doctrine of liberalism contributed to Anglo
, foreign policy decisions are taken consensually by the King and senior princes of the royal family, producing caution and continuity in policy, deeply reflective of Saudi Arabia’s character as a status quo power. The muted competition which exists within the royal family also encourages a risk-averse attempt to appease – ‘bandwagon’ between – conflicting pressures from the West and the Arab world. Thus, the preferences of the ‘Suderi Seven’ – notably King Fahd, Defence Minster Prince Sultan and Interior Minister Prince Nayef – for a Western alliance and Western
countries and serve to attract further international capital investment and expatriate labour, economic development and status. In doing so, they contribute to the Emirates’ sovereignty, autonomy and ultimately, security. As the UAE reaches for greater economic diversification there are individuals within the royal family who are well placed to combine politics, defence and economic statecraft. Their inclusion is also important for Sheikh Zayed to consolidate control. For example, Sheikh Tahnoun is the son of Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al-Nahyan, the UAE
Al Saud feel especially vulnerable. This was later added to by Khomeini's rhetoric. In a twenty-nine-page document which formed part of his will after he died in 1989, he writes: ‘Muslims should curse these tyrants, including the Saudi royal family, these traitors to God's great shrine, may God's curse and that of his prophets and angels be upon them … King Fahd spends a large part of the people's wealth every year on the anti-Qorani totally baseless superstitious faith of Wahhabism. He abuses Islam and the dear Qoran.’ 7
This group, it is argued in a civil suit filed by Saad Al Jabri in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, are noted as the personal mercenaries of the crown prince. They are alleged to have been sent to execute Saad Al Jabri where he resides in Canada for what he may know about the royal family, which could undermine Mohammed bin Salman's relations with the White House. 74 One might imagine that these cases reflect a problem for the Biden administration to secure individuals who have
Party, called some events run by Tablighi Jamaat ‘corona jihad’. 35 Member of the Sharjah royal family and businesswoman Sheikha Hend Faisal Al Qassimi called out Saurabh Upadhyay, an Indian national working in the UAE in April 2020, for being ‘openly racist and discriminatory’. 36 She went on to publish a front-page opinion piece in the Gulf News titled ‘I pray for an India without hate and Islamophobia’. 37 In