By Fareed Zakaria

I couldn't help but notice a speech this week by a man who has all but disappeared from many of our radars.

In a rare public speech, former President George W. Bush said: "America does not get to choose if a freedom revolution should begin or end in the Middle East. It only gets to choose what side it is on ... America's message should ring clear and strong: We stand for freedom."

Over the years, and long before the start of the Arab Spring, Bush has been consistent in pressing his freedom agenda in Africa and the Middle East — in fact, the world over.

It's an optimistic conservatism that contrasts strongly with the pessimism of many other conservatives.

Take for example Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who last November called the Arab Spring an "Islamic, anti-Western, anti-liberal, anti-Israeli, undemocratic wave."

The irony is that in his deep suspicion about the Arab Spring, Bibi has a strange bedfellow — the Saudi monarchy. FULL POST

Editor’s Note: Kathleen Sullivan is an analyst at Ergo, a global intelligence and advisory firm. The article below is based on a report Ergo recently published, entitled The Waning Era of Saudi Oil Dominance. Follow Ergo on Twitter.

By Kathleen Sullivan – Special to CNN

Saudi Arabia has thus far managed to stave off the popular protests that have led to the ouster of four Arab heads of state, chiefly due to its strategic and well-timed disbursements of oil-revenue-funded social giveaways. While so far effective in preserving the status quo, this approach has tied the fate of the monarchy to that of its oil revenues - an increasingly risky linkage.

For decades, Saudi Arabia’s booming oil revenues have been a safe bet in a constantly shifting region.  Proud and longtime holder of the world’s largest proven reserves, highest exports, and most spare capacity, Saudi Arabia maintained an unrivaled position of dominance in global oil markets.  However, a deeper look at Saudi Arabia’s growing domestic pressures and its external challenges reveal signs of decay in the Kingdom’s global oil market dominance, and with it, weakening defenses against a popular uprising. FULL POST

Editor's Note: Robert M. Danin is Eni Enrico Mattei Senior Fellow for Middle East and Africa Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. He is a former Director for the Levant and Israeli-Palestinian Affairs at the National Security Council. This article is reprinted with permission of the Council on Foreign Relations. The views expressed in this article are solely those of Robert Danin.

By Robert M. Danin – Special to CNN

Recent demonstrations and violence in Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Province that left four people dead and nine others wounded raise the question: Is Saudi Arabia the next country that will encounter the wave of popular unrest sweeping the Arab world?

Already the Arab uprisings’ effects have been felt in Saudi Arabia. In February and March, soon after Mubarak’s overthrow in Egypt, Saudi Facebook activists began calling for a revolution and declared a “Day of Rage” for March 11, emulating the youth activists in Egypt and Tunisia. However, the “Day of Rage” fizzled out, and demonstrations were held only in the Eastern Province, home to Saudi’s restive Shia minority. FULL POST

Editor's Note: Ed Husain is a Senior Fellow for Middle Eastern Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. The following is his First Take, reprinted with the permission of the Council on Foreign Relations.

By Ed Husain, CFR.org

I was in Saudi Arabia when King Fahd died in 2005. There was genuine remorse among Saudis young and old at the passing of the king. Portraits of the king covered car windows for weeks - a spontaneous and unprecedented outburst of Saudi national grief. There was also hope that the new king, Abdullah, would help bring Saudi Arabia into the twenty-first century. That dream ended yesterday with the appointment of Prince Nayef bin Abdul Aziz as crown prince, or de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia as King Abdullah continues to undergo hospital treatment for his declining health condition.

In the corridors of power in Washington, DC, and London there was some relief that Prince Nayef, as expected, had become crown prince. In contrast, young Saudis on Twitter, Saudi democracy activists and vocal women were filled with foreboding as to what lies ahead in their country. Granted, Nayef has been a vociferous enemy of al Qaeda elements inside Saudi Arabia and eliminated hundreds of operatives, while arresting thousands since 2003. But this was not because he opposed jihadi ideology or Islamist thinking. His public attacks on the Muslim Brotherhood come not because he differs with their brand of Salafi Islam, but because they seek to undermine the House of Saud. FULL POST

Nayef bin Abdulaziz, Saudi Arabia's interior minister, has been named the new crown prince of the key oil-producing nation, ascending at a time of regional turmoil amid the populist Arab Spring movement and simmering international issues involving Iran and other neighbors.

The news, following a royal decree signed by King Abdullah, was announced early Friday on state-run Saudi Television. The official Saudi Press Agency reported that the decree was issued the previous evening.

Crown Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud, the king's half-brother, died in a New York hospital on Saturday after being ill for some time. His funeral was held three days later in Riyadh.

As was the case with his predecessor, the move makes Nayef bin Abdulaziz the heir to the Saudi throne.

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By Fareed Zakaria, CNN

I recently visited Iran. Upon my return, I wrote a reflections post in which I made some comments about women in Iran in comparison to women in Saudi Arabia. I pointed out that if you watch the women of the Islamic Republic of Iran - a regime that is, by most accounts, retrograde, particularly with regard to women’s rights - you are struck by how defiantly women try to lead normal and productive lives. They wear the headscarves and adhere to the rules about covering their bodies, but do so in a very stylish way. They continue to go to college in large numbers, to graduate school and to work.

In Saudi Arabia, another country that is run along strict Islamic lines, you see an elite core of women who are highly educated and very articulate, but in general, the most striking thing about Saudi Arabia for an outsider traveling around is the absence of co-ed facilities. Some of this is changing, but my impression of Saudi Arabia is still that women are not well integrated into the workforce or mainstream life.  FULL POST

Editor's Note: Mai Yamani's most recent book is Cradle of Islam.

By Mai Yamani, Project Syndicate

LONDON – The contrast between the deaths, within two days of each other, of Libya’s Col. Moammar Gadhafi and Saudi Crown Prince Sultan bin Abdel Aziz is one of terminal buffoonery versus decadent gerontocracy. And their demise is likely to lead to very different outcomes: liberation for the Libyans and stagnation for the Saudis.

But the death of Sultan, at 86, marks the beginning of a critical period of domestic and foreign uncertainty for the Kingdom. After all, Sultan’s half-brother, King Abdullah, 87, is still hospitalized in Riyadh, following a major operation last month. The regime is aging and ailing, and is perceived by the population as being on life support. FULL POST

Editor's Note: Nawaf Obaid is a Senior Fellow at the King Faisal Center for Research & Islamic Studies based in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. He recently wrote an op-ed for The Washington Post entitled, Why Saudi Arabia is stable amid the Mideast unrest. Previously, Obaid was also private security and energy advisor Nawaf Obaid to Prince Turki al-Faisal when al-Faisal was the Saudi Ambassador to the United States.

By Nawaf Obaid – Special to CNN

RIYADH - The alleged Iranian plot to assassinate the Saudi Ambassador to the U.S. and bomb embassies around the world was not only a flagrant violation of international law and norms, but also a sign of the fury and desperation the Mullahs in Tehran feel in the face of strong Saudi support for Bahrain.

This March, after the Kingdom sent troops to the island nation to protect against the violent uprising, Iran’s leadership could only watch helplessly as its plans to overthrow the monarchy and establish a Shia proxy state there were quashed. The recently revealed terror plot was a direct response to this act, and sheds light on the role that Bahrain plays in Iranian plans to further its influence throughout the region.

In fact, Ghulam Shakuri, the Iranian military officer in charge of covert operations against the Bahraini government, was named in the U.S. affidavit outlining the foiled attacks. Thus, the plot against Saudi Arabia and the turmoil in Bahrain are linked and represent only the latest stage in Iran’s decades-long campaign to export its militant ideology and assert its influence throughout the region. Because of the threat Iran’s clearly poses to peace and stability in the Middle East, the Kingdom will do everything necessary to stop its meddling in Bahrain, even if that means going to war. FULL POST

On GPS this Sunday at 10a.m. ET/PT, making sense of the Occupy Wall Street movement. Who are they and what do they want? Fareed explores the macro picture with an all-star panel: Editor-in-Chief of Forbes Media and former U.S. presidential candidate Steve Forbes; Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman; Chrystia Freeland from Reuters and Bret Stephens of the Wall Street Journal.

Also on the show: Prince Turki al-Faisal is the former head of Saudi intelligence and a former ambassador to both the UK and the U.S. His thoughts on the Osama bin Laden he knew, the war on terror, Obama’s presidency and reform in the Kingdom.

Here's an excerpt from Paul Krugman on Occupy Wall Street's "positive contribution" to society:
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Egypt's economy and government coffers lost $9 billion since ousting Hosni Mubarak from power, according to a new report from they consulting group Geopolicity. Libya's revolution has cost its economy $14 billion. The ongoing unrest in Syria has cost another $27 billion.

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