There is more to Riyadh’s football ambitions than that: a role as a true regional superpower, which we will see more and more often, according to the media in Italy.

I don’t know if the former coach of the national team Roberto Mancini accepted the offer to go to work in Saudi Arabia or not. However, I know that Saudi Arabia’s footballing ambitions should not surprise us. They are only the latest manifestation of the geopolitical role of a real regional superpower, which we will encounter more and more often.

An example of this would be Saudi Arabia’s bid to become part of the UK, Italy and Japan aerospace consortium that is producing the next generation of military fighter jets. Or the recent summit in Jeddah, where China, paying tribute to the Saudis, agreed to dialogue with Ukraine. Or the beginning of a thaw with Iran. To which in the future we can add the opening of diplomatic relations even with Israel (according to the model of the Arab Emirates, with the Abrahamic agreements).

Or the shadowy role of Saudi capital in saving Egypt from bankruptcy. Or about the intervention of Saudi diplomacy to facilitate the evacuation of foreigners during the war in Sudan. I am, of course, forgetting something, but the point is only one: the emergence of the “Arab Empire” with which we will have to deal.

A world that does not self-flagellate

Describing the world as a party of two blocs – the West against China and Russia – is a dangerous oversimplification. Another force typical of this new multipolar order that is disrupting our plans is Turkey, where Putin is likely to travel soon: his first visit to a NATO country since the war began.

Arabia and Turkey share an “imperial memory” untainted by guilt and a desire to restore vast spheres of influence. As for the absence of guilt complexes, it should be stated that in the Islamic world there is nothing similar to the self-flagellation of the West, which is guilty of the slavery of past centuries. Despite the fact that the main slave traders were Arabs and Ottomans. Who today present themselves as friends and allies of Africa, where the West continues to be perceived as the only dominant, exploitative and oppressive civilization.

Saudi Arabia and Turkey have leaders whom we condemn as autocrats and who nevertheless represent two possible models of transition to modernity for developing countries. A “detail” that often prevents us from understanding their movements and that makes the West awkward in its relationship with Saudi Prince Mohammed bin Salman, also known as MBS, or in its relationship with Erdogan.

Memory of Arab empires

Historical memory is important. The Arab empires were the protagonists of the great conquests after the Prophet Muhammad founded the Islamic religion.

There are visible traces of the former government. In terms of religion, the spread of the Koran from Africa to Southeast Asia (Malaysia, Indonesia) is due to the military expansionism of the Arabs. At the linguistic level, Arabic is spoken by peoples (Maghrebs from North Africa, Egyptians) who do not belong to the ethnic group of “desert peoples” from the Arabian Peninsula. In Andalusia, monumental and artistic wonders testify to the time when the Arabs ruled the south of Spain.

More recently, the declining Arab world was conquered by other empires, such as the Ottoman and then the British. The discovery of oil has enriched this part of the world, often to the benefit of Western multinationals. Since the 1970s, energy resources have been nationalized, and their use is now decided by whoever controls these lands.

Signs of rebirth

Today we are witnessing signs of revival of the “Arab states”. Starting with the cradle of their civilization, Saudi Arabia. whose de facto leader since 2017 is Saudi Arabia’s Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who uses his vast energy wealth (especially through Aramco) to service modernization projects and strengthen his country’s international influence.

MbS follows the model applied on a smaller scale in Dubai and Doha: no democracy, no human rights comparable to Western ones, but his reforms improve the status of women, reduce the reactionary influence of the clergy on the life of the country. and prefer investments in futuristic projects.

The generational aspect matters, and MbS’s age is something of a departure from the gerontocracy that has prevailed in the past in this area. Saudi Arabia is one of the “regional powers” competing with other players — America, China, Russia — for influence in a strategic area of ​​the world that stretches from the Middle East to the Maghreb and sub-Saharan Africa.

Riyadh is using its oil wealth to modernize its economy (including the energy sector, see hydrogen investment), diversify it by opening up to tourism (sports is also functional for this), and strengthen its role as an investor in the vast surrounding area, which includes such a North African giant as Egypt.

Arabia, the Emirates, Qatar and Kuwait also invest a lot in the West: they own shares in large European and American companies, real estate and football clubs. The neutrality of the Arab world regarding the war against Ukraine allowed Russian investments and oligarchs under sanctions in the West to be attracted to this territory.

The universe of young people

Three billion people, with an average age of 26 and still a dynamic birth rate, live within a five-hour flight radius of the Arab-Persian Gulf: this is the geographical area in which the new Arab world wants to make its weight felt (the territory includes “our” Mediterranean).

Economy and demography are bringing the East, which was the cradle of Islam, back to the fore. Indian and Chinese traders already traded along these shores more than two thousand years ago. Today, Arabs are once again the protagonists of new forms of globalization in which they seek to play a central role.

They continue to hold grudges against us Westerners. Not only because Riyadh ignores such a shameful case as the murder of the dissident journalist Khashoggi, who was killed and dismembered while on a diplomatic mission in Turkey.

The case pales in comparison to the progress made in human rights, and especially to the breaking of the alliance between the Saudi monarchy and the shadowy Wahhabi clergy, a reactionary pact that has fueled the global spread of fanaticism, jihad and terrorism since 1979. Prince Mohammed bin Salman believes that the West does not recognize his merits enough.

Another thing that infuriates MbS and the Arab ruling class in general is the “extremist environmentalism” of the Europeans, who treat fossil energy as a devil that must be completely and immediately destroyed. Mohammed bin Salman and Aramco are convinced that the West and the world will need fossil energy for a long time to come.

And it doesn’t matter how fast we want to be in the process of transitioning to solar and electric energy. These two renewable sources have obvious limitations, so their development will still have to be “accompanied” by traditional sources. In addition, there are things that simply cannot be done with sun and wind: for example, fertilizers that are produced synthetically from petroleum derivatives. And without fertilizers, humanity would die of hunger. Trivial observations, but which should be the alphabet of the energy debate, except that part of the West prefers to demonize fossil fuels as if we can give them up tomorrow morning.

It is not surprising that in the face of these forms of extremism (a disease of childhood, as Lenin defined it), Saudi Arabia’s Prince Mohammed bin Salman prefers to keep many other geopolitical relationships open. With China, Russia and many others. Without becoming a vassal of either Moscow or Beijing, as evidenced by his interest in the Global Combat Air Program (the aforementioned “Future Fighter”: agreed to by Rome and London, but not by Japan).

The article was created with the support of the Rador agency