Understanding Arab Nationalism from the Unusual Perspective of Ahmed Zaki Yamani

This volume in a series of world history case studies centers upon Saudi Arabia's influential oil minister from 1962 to 1986, Ahmed Zaki Yamani. Yamani consistently pushed Western oil companies to acknowledge the Kingdom's right to control its own resources, but did so while hoping to preserve profitable relationships with these companies. It was a strategy many OPEC members and Arab nationalists opposed, but Yamani skillfully managed the delicate balancing act for two and a half decades during a transformative period in the Middle East's volatile history. This careful examination of Yamani's career allows us to understand the Arab world in a new way.