A review by miguelf
MBS: The Rise to Power of Mohammed bin Salman by Ben Hubbard

4.0

The main protagonist of MBS is not a sympathetic figure, unless of course one identifies with Middle Eastern royalty that prioritize buying half billion dollar luxury yachts and dreaming of future techno-fantasy cities in the desert. It’s perhaps why Hubbard spends a good portion of the book describing Jamal Khashoggi’s background and ultimate notorious demise as we encounter someone we can actually identify with and root for. It might have been MBS’s absence of any written documentation or few interviews, or it may be that MBS is such a cypher. However, what little is concretely known about him is laid out well in this work, although the relationship between him and Kushner is perhaps just as well documented in the recent book ‘American Oligarchs’. As the author points out, we might be seeing this daunting leader ruling well into the 2060’s which based on what we know doesn’t bode so well for Saudi Arabia or the greater region.