Over the last decade, Saudi Arabia has emerged as the Middle East’s most assertive power. Stirred to action by the fall of Saddam Hussein, the rise of Iran, and deeply unsettled by the Arab uprisings, the kingdom has taken on an increasingly interventionist role.

Saudi Arabia’s strategic vision is, to put it bluntly, whatever is best for the ruling House of Saud.  Discerning that vision, especially at times of strain and possibly change, has always been a challenge, given the opaqueness of the royal family and its public preference for platitudes. 

The accession of King Salman a year ago and the decision to lead a military intervention in Yemen mark a new phase for Saudi foreign policy. That does not mean that there is a new foreign policy doctrine or strategy.

America has been in Arabia for well over six decades, yet the American access to the inner workings of the Saudi world has been limited at best.  There is an opaqueness to the Saudi realm, and that ambivalence has run through its tangled relationship with its American protector.