A nation must think before it acts.
Written shortly after King Fahd of Saudi Arabia’s death, this profile takes the measure of the man: “Profligate though he may have been, Fahd never forgot that Saudi Arabia was a rich place with a small army in a region full of ghastly predators. He proved forceful even with a weak hand.”
This essay originally appeared as an FPRI E-Note on August 12, 2005.