Comments by "Fredrik Dunge" (@DaDunge) on "Geopolitics of Saudi Arabia" video.

@saurillian Except it won't become one, Iran is no military powerhouse, the Saudis have way more military power at their disposal than Iran does, their military budget is 20 times that of Iran, granted they don't have the numbers Iran does, mainly because Iran is a multinational state that draws it's people from any number of different peoples while the Saudi only draw their numbers from the Najd, who make up a mere sliver of their population.
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@MrMoOomoOo91 Yes and no, there is no way they can shut of the red sea, but no a lot of big transport today don't use the Suez canal anyway
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@saurillian Without a relatively powerful country holding it you wouldn't be able to block traffic a rogue state is not enough, you already have Somalia close to the straits pirating but the international patrolling keeps them open.
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I think you miss a fundemantal apsect there, Saudi arabia has soldiers of it's own but they are drawn exclusively from the Najd people, the people the ruling dynasty comes from. It's not (at least not only) that they don't trust their military it's that they don't trust the other tribes of the country to be part of their military.
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Of course they could, they have before. But the very fact that they are resource economies hold them back, they have no need to empower the people and all that cash flow looks very attractive to any would be authoriarian leader which means you end up with a cycle of appeasement. To keep their generals loyal the leaders have to essentially buy them of.
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