In one generation we went from riding camels to riding

Cadillacs. The way we are wasting money, I fear the next

generation will be riding camels again.

— KING FAISAL OF SAUDI ARABIA, AS QUOTED IN MAI YAMANI,

CHANGED IDENTITIES: THE CHALLENGE OF THE NEW GENERATION

IN SAUDI ARABIA

S

ubstitute “oil” for “money” in this cynical prophecy, and you

get an idea of the quandary facing the Persian Gulf monarchies:

Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman,

and Bahrain. These six small states developed at a breakneck pace thanks

to the oil reserves discovered under their desert sands less than a century

ago. But they are now in the throes of a mighty energy dilemma. This

problem stems not from the depletion of this oil— the “peak oil” hypo-

thesis of a decade ago— but from skyrocketing demand for the very fuel

that drove their rapid ascent into the modern world.^1

During King Faisal’s reign, in the 1960s and 1970s, there was little to

suggest that his own subjects might someday require so much energy

that their needs would interfere with the kingdom’s exports. The

INTRODUCTION