Eric and Eliot welcome Karen Elliott House, former long-time correspondent for the Wall Street Journal, President of Dow Jones International, Publisher of the Wall Street Journal and author of The Man Who Would Be King: Mohammed Bin Salman and the Transformation of Saudi Arabia (New York: HarperCollins, 2025). They discuss the rise of MBS, the scope of the changes he has wrought in the Kingdom in less than a decade in power, the ongoing forces of resistance to change, his effort to replace Islam with nationalism as a force binding Saudis together, and MBS's views of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia as a "middle power' in a world of great power competition.

The Man Who Would Be King: Mohammed bin Salman and the Transformation of Saudi Arabia:

https://a.co/d/etBZ1Yp

Shield of the Republic is a Bulwark podcast co-sponsored by the Miller Center of Public Affairs at the University of Virginia.