Conversations with Tyler
David Commins on Saudi Arabia, Wahhabism, and the Future of the Gulf States
Sep 17, 2025
· 51m
<p class="MsoNormal">David Commins, author of the new book <em><span style= "font-family: 'Aptos',sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;"> Saudi Arabia: A Modern History</span></em>, brings decades of scholarship and firsthand experience to explain the kingdom's unlikely rise. Tyler and David discuss why Wahhabism was essential for Saudi state-building, the treatment of Shiites in the Eastern Province and whether discrimination has truly ended, why the Saudi state emerged from its poorer and least cosmopolitan regions, the lasting significance …