ISIS isn't just a threat to Iraq and Syria.

As the group spread across Iraq last summer and fall, neighboring Saudi
Arabia started building a 600 mile fence aimed at keeping militants out. The Saudis are adding chain link razor
wire fencing, silent alarms, watchtowers armed with video, along with thermal and night vision surveillance.
Gregory Gause is head of the International Affairs Department at Texas A&M University's Bush School of
Government and Public Service. I asked him if his high-tech barrier signals Saudi Arabia's fear of an outright
invasion by ISIS.
GREGORY GAUSE: I think that that's one of those low probability but very high-impact events that
governments tend to do over plan for. I think that the more serious issue for Saudi Arabia and many other states
in the Middle East is the affect that ISIS can have within its own domestic populations. I think that there's quite
a bit of sympathy in many areas of Saudi public opinion for ISIS' fight against the Assad regime, for their fight
against what many people in Saudi Arabia see as an Iranian puppet-regime in Iraq. So there is undoubtedly
sympathy for what ISIS is doing.
CORNISH: ISIS is linked to Sunni Muslims in identity. Saudi Arabia has traditionally been home to very
conservative Sunni Muslims, and some have talked about private donors in the past funding or supporting the
precursor to ISIS. Give us a context for why the Saudi government has been so aggressive about fighting ISIS.
GAUSE: Well, I think that they see ISIS as an analog to al-Qaeda. And the Saudis, in the 1980s, as we did,
supported Islamist insurgency in Afghanistan against the Soviet Union and, in the '90s, kind of turned a blind
eye to the development of this Salafi jihadist movement. And then that came back to bite them when al-Qaeda
conducted a real campaign within Saudi Arabia against the regime. And I think that the leaders of Saudi Arabia
see ISIS as possibly doing the same thing. And I think that there's a real recognition at that point in Riyadh that
this could have really serious domestic repercussions for the country.
CORNISH: We've talked about this from the perspective of the Saudi government, but, when it comes to Saudi
Arabia, what are the goals of ISIS?
GAUSE: Eventually they would like to take over Saudi Arabia, just like al-Qaeda wanted to. The holy cities of
Mecca and Medina, the heartland of Arabia is almost irresistible to Salafi jihadists like ISIS. It is their home
base. And so I think that there is a sense where ISIS is shooting at Saudi Arabia as an ultimate goal. But this
particular attack, I think, was more just a shot across the bow to let the Saudi's know that, you know, you're in
our sights.
CORNISH: We've been talking about this border fence, but what other actions is the government taking there in
response to the threat that they perceive from ISIS?
GAUSE: At the beginning of 2014, the Saudi's officially put ISIS on their brand-new terrorist list. They
criminalized any Saudi joining a foreign jihad. It's explicitly illegal for them to be members of ISIS or even
express support for ISIS. So, in that regard, the Saudis defined ISIS as a domestic security threat. And that was,
I think, the big escalation. There's also an effort on the part of the religious establishment at the behest of the
Saudi government to try to delegitimize ISIS. That, of course, is a harder thing to do because, on the political
front, it's easy for the Saudi religious authorities to say these guys are bad because they stand and against our
government. But, at the practical level, the way ISIS governs the territory it controls is not all that different from
- at least in theory - the way the Saudi religious establishment thinks Islam requires you to govern any territory.
They work from the same texts, and although ISIS is much more extreme and much more brutal, there is a
similarity in terms of the core texts that both the Saudi religious establishment and that ISIS looks at for
guidance about how politics should work in an Islamic State.
CORNISH: Gregory Gause. He's the head of International Affairs at the Bush School of Government and Public
Service at Texas A&M University. Thanks so much for explaining it to us.

There is a disgraceful spectacle unfolding in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, in which some of the leading lights
of the West are playing the role of medieval court jesters, singing platitudes to tyrants in a demonstration of
subservience that shames the rest of us.
Ostensibly, the American, British, French and other European leaders travelled to the medieval monstrosity we
call Saudi Arabia to offer condolences to the family of the late King Abdullah.
But the reality is different. They are there because the Saudis have money and oil.
On one hand the West claims it is fighting to destroy Islamic State (ISIS), yet it strengthens its ties with the very
people who have spent an estimated $100 billion to spread Wahhabism, the foundational Islamist creed of ISIS,
the Muslim Brotherhood, al-Qaida, Boko Haram and the Taliban.

The West is strengthening ties with the

very people who have spent an estimated
$100 billion spreading the foundational
Islamist creed of ISIS.

How such statesmen and personalities of the free world as

President Barack Obama, Prince Charles, French President
Francois Hollande, UK Prime Minister David Cameron and
the Archbishop of Canterbury could be taken in by the Saudis
is mind-boggling.

But the hypocrisy and chicanery of Western leaders has not gone unnoticed.
Alastair Crooke the former MI-6 agent and author of the book, Resistance: The Essence of Islamic Revolution,
has been trying to educate Western Liberals.
Writing in the Huffington Post, Crooke says, "You Can't Understand ISIS If You Don't Know the History of
Wahhabism in Saudi Arabia."
Saying there is little difference between the Saudis the West supposedly admires and the Islamic State (ISIS) it
is fighting, the former MI6 agent explains his argument by citing a historic slaughter the Saudis and their ISISlike allies of the time committed:
Their (Saudi) strategy like that of ISIS today was to bring the peoples whom they conquered into submission. They aimed to
instill fear ...
In 1801, the Allies (Saudis and Wahhabis) attacked the Holy City of Karbala in Iraq. They massacred thousands of Shiites, including
women and children ... A British official, Lieutenant Francis Warden, observing the situation at the time, wrote: 'They pillaged the
whole of it (Karbala) ... slaying in the course of the day, with circumstances of peculiar cruelty, above 5,000 of the inhabitants...'

While Crooke relied on history and his knowledge of the area to nudge Western leaders out of their intoxicated
slumber, English author and former Conservative MP Louise Mensch launched a tirade on Twitter to express the
feelings of millions of us in the West who felt betrayed by their leaders.
Mensch was furious when Cameron said he was "deeply saddened" by the Saudi king's death while Obama's
boasted of his "friendship" with him.
She tweeted: "F--- you Saudi Arabia and shame on the supine male leaders of the West @David_Cameron
@BarackObama #Freethe4 #JeSuisFemme".
The hashtag #Freethe4 was in reference to the four daughters of King Abdullah whom the Saudi tyrant had
imprisoned under house arrest for many years.

As Western leaders lined up to pay homage to a new dictator in Riyadh, they pretended they didn't know that
just two weeks before his death, Abdullah's government had lashed liberal Saudi blogger Raif Badawi 50 times
for the "crime" of defending atheists. Up to 950 more lashes could await the brave Badawi.
While Prime Minister Stephen Harper also praised Abdullah upon his death, at least he knows cola in a can is
the same thing as cola in a bottle.
Although it may be the Islamic State groups most coveted target, experts agree that Saudi Arabia is not likely to
become the next Iraq or Syria. While ISIS ideology and some fighters have quietly trickled into the 90 percent
Sunni country, oil-rich and U.S.-friendly Saudi Arabia may be the militant jihadist groups most difficult border
to breach.
Saudi Arabia is an active member of the U.S.-led anti-ISIS coalition, a longtime and very wealthy U.S. ally, and
the Middle East's Sunni powerhouse. Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi described the country as the
head of the snake and stronghold of disease.
Saudi Arabia is, however, the birthplace of ISIS particular brand of Wahhabi-Salafist Sunni Islam. Aside from
the religious appeal, it is also the largest producer and exporter of oil, averaging 8 million barrels per day. If
Islamic State militants seized oil production facilities or Saudi Arabias more than 260 billion barrels of proven
reserves, it would be a momentous shift in world affairs.
There is no doubt that Islamic State fighters have a presence in the country. The militant group reportedly
released a video Tuesday, claiming to show the killing of Danish national Thomas Hoepner in Saudi Arabia.
Saudi officials arrested 77 suspected ISIS members responsible for an attack that left seven Shiites dead,
according to a spokesman for the Ministry of Interior. In May, 62 suspected members of an Islamic State cell
were arrested in the southern city of Abha; two months later the Saudi government deployed security forces on
the Iraqi border to curb militant activity.
These seemingly random, sporadic attacks are all part of ISIS strategy in Saudi Arabia. In a rare audio
recording, al-Baghdadi called on Saudi Islamic State supporters to "embitter their lives and make them occupied
with themselves instead of us." In other words, he wants ISIS' Saudi supporters to deteriorate the government
from inside the country, helping to erode support for the monarchy and convince people that it is in their interest
to pledge allegiance to the caliphate.
If anything, I expect that ISIS will sponsor guerilla attacks in [Saudi Arabia]. And guerilla-style warfare, while
still a risk, is more anonymous for individual members than professional military operations, Harleen Gambhir,
counterterrorism analyst at the Institute for the Study of War, said.
ISIS was able to expand in Iraq and Syria largely by appealing to existing disaffected populations who had long
been mistreated by their government. Saudi Arabia has no shortage of unhappy residents, but the countrys
ruling House of Saud is infamous for brutal crackdowns at the very whiff of uprising or ill intent toward the
government. Saudis barely raised a finger in protest while several other Middle Eastern authoritarian
governments shook or crumbled during the Arab Spring.
ISIS has been thriving in areas where governance is very weak or collapsed, and that's not the case in Saudi
Arabia, Matthew Waxman, an adjunct senior fellow for law and foreign policy at the Council on Foreign
Relations, said. The Saudi government was quite effective in combating al Qaeda, and its record during the
past decade suggests that it is not nearly as susceptible to the ISIS threat as other countries in the region.
Despite strict government control, ISIS ideology has spread among disaffected members of Saudi society who
opted to leave the country. The highest number of foreign fighters, at least 2,500 as of May, who went to Syria

to fight with jihadists was from Saudi Arabia, and at least 500 went to Iraq, according to a report from The
Soufan Group.
For a person who really believes in ISIS ideology, the question is not whether ISIS is a good enough reason to
risk harm but whether they will face that risk in Iraq and Syria or in Saudi Arabia, Gambhir said. A Saudi
extremist who's willing to risk life and limb and is not tied to their community would likely choose to emigrate
across the border to fight in Iraq.
An estimated 300 fighters have returned from Iraq and Syria to Saudi Arabia and undergone the governments
counseling and care program, which is like rehab for jihadists, according to The Soufan Group. Of the 2,500
people who participated in the program over the past two years, 12 percent have relapsed, Ministry of Interior
spokesman Maj. Gen. Mansour Al-Turki said last week. Relapsed fighters become a risk for Saudi Arabias
national security and could carry out lone wolf attacks inside the country, which is a huge part of ISIS strategy
in Saudi.
Bottom line is, we're not going to see an ISIS-led land invasion of Saudi Arabia, Gambhir said. What we
might see is more direct support of ISIS-supporting elements in the country and coordinated efforts to distract
Saudi security forces from events in Iraq.
t would be an understatement to say that the internal power politics at play in Yemen are among the oldest, most
complex and most dynamic in the Middle East.
What heretofore was a struggling and weak Sunni-led central government barely holding onto power while engaged
in simultaneous and perpetual conflicts with a myriad of actors, has crumbled as of a week ago. Ongoing tribal
disputes with no resolution in sight, secessionist movements in both the north and south, and being in the
unfortunate position of serving as home base for Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), have all fed fuel to the
fire. Two of those conflicts, however, one internal and the other external, are closely related, and have come to the
forefront of both domestic and regional politics in light of recent events.
The first is the decade-long insurgency fought against the Houthi rebels, a Shia minority in the north who just last
week toppled the central government and appear set, at least for now, to assume much greater power. However,
many unanswered questions remain as to how the country will ultimately be governed, and by whom. The second,
and more significant clash from a geopolitical standpoint involves two external actors, and has potentially far
reaching regional repercussions that can alter the balance of power equation in the Middle East for years to come.
Strategic rivalry
Reminiscent of the "Great Game" played out in Afghanistan between Great Britain and Russia more than a hundred
years ago, Saudi Arabia and Iran are engaged in their own decades-long strategic rivalry for power and influence in
the Middle East, stretching from the Mediterranean Sea to the Gulf and Arabian Sea. It is built mostly along
sectarian and ideological lines - Saudi Arabia as the leader of the Sunni Muslim world, and Iran as the leader of the
Shia Muslim world.

While recent high-level discussions between the Saudi and Iranian foreign ministers would suggest a possible
thawing in their cold relations, the fact of the matter is, too much bad blood exists between them for any
meaningful, long-term rapprochement, at least in the near-term. The more likely state of affairs is that they are
simply reassessing their strategies, taking into account all the events in the region, and preparing their next
moves on the Middle East chessboard.
Inside Story - Yemen: New balance of power?
In playing their Great Game, Saudi Arabia and Iran have engaged in a series of proxy wars to undermine each
other, some hot and some cold, throughout the Middle East. In Lebanon, it's the Iran-backed Hezbollah. In Syria, it's

the longtime Iran-backed Assad regime. In Iraq, it's an Iran-backed Shia government which was, prior to the US
invasion in 2003, solidly in the Sunni camp.
In Bahrain and the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia, Iran works behind the scenes to undermine those
governments through the Shia communities, a threat Saudi Arabia takes so seriously that they sent military forces
into Bahrain in 2011 to help quell the Shia uprising there. And then there is Yemen. While it is debatable as to how
involved they were in supporting the Houthi uprising, the sudden turn of events on the ground there does play
favourably into Irans hand. But why?
Iran's long-term strategic interest in Yemen is simple. Located on the southwestern tip of the Gulf peninsula, Yemen
is a poorly governed, fractious country straddling Saudi Arabia's southern border, which can be likened to a sieve in
terms of ancient smuggling routes still used by those wanting to covertly enter the kingdom. And with a population
that is 35 percent Shia, Yemen could serve as a potentially friendly base of operations in Iran's rivalry against Saudi
Arabia. For Iran, easier access to Yemen means easier access to Saudi Arabia. But is that really Iran's intent?

Riyadh (AFP) - Saudi Arabia said its forces killed dozens of Iran-backed rebels from Yemen who launched their
first major attack on the kingdom since Saudi-led air strikes began last month.
Three Saudi soldiers also died in the battle after the rebels targeted their observation posts, the defence ministry
said, as its army repelled the assault.
There have been deadly skirmishes before but this is the first time the Saudi military has reported a full-scale
Huthi attack on its borders.
Gulf foreign ministers on Thursday meanwhile rejected a proposal to hold talks on neutral ground between rival
Yemeni political forces, while an expert report said Iran has been shipping weapons to the Huthis since at least
2009.
The United Nations is trying to bring an end to the weeks-long air campaign and return to peace talks.
After a meeting in Riyadh, the Gulf ministers insisted that talks between Yemen's political factions be held in
Saudi Arabia, which leads an Arab coalition that has been bombing the Shiite rebels since late March.
The Gulf foreign ministers takes part in a meeting to discuss the war in Yemen on April 30, 2015 in
Iran has proposed holding UN talks on ending the war in Yemen in a neutral country, one not represented in the
coalition.
But in a statement after talks at a Riyadh airbase the six Gulf Cooperation Council states "affirmed their support
to intensive efforts by the legitimate Yemeni government to hold a conference under the umbrella of the GCC
secretariat in Riyadh."
The conference would be attended by "all Yemeni parties and components supporting legitimacy as well as
Yemen's security and stability," said GCC secretary general Abdullatif al-Zayani.
Thursday's meeting aimed to lay the groundwork for a GCC leaders' summit on Tuesday, which will also be
attended by French President Francois Hollande.
The GCC groups regional heavyweight Saudi Arabia along with Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, and the United
Arab Emirates.
A Yemeni man carries a wounded youth in a hospital in the southern Yemeni city of Taez after he was

All but Oman belong to the coalition, whose warplanes pressed their attacks on rebel positions as the ministers
met for about three hours in a chandeliered room.
- 'Pattern of shipments' The air strikes began in late March when the Huthis and their allies advanced on the main southern city of
Aden, where President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi fled after the rebels seized large parts of the country including
Sanaa.
Hadi escaped to Riyadh, which feared an Iran-friendly regime taking control of its southern neighbour.
Iran has denied charges of arming the rebels, called for an end to the strikes and pushed for a negotiated
settlement.
A Yemeni man who was wounded in an air strike rests in a man made underground water tunnel where he
But a report by a panel of experts presented to the UN Security Council last week, and seen by AFP, said there
has been "a pattern of arms shipments to Yemen by sea that can be traced back to at least 2009".
The conflict has heightened tensions in the region.
Iran said two of its destroyers sent to the Gulf of Aden had reached the entrance of Bab al-Mandab, a strategic
strait between Yemen and Djibouti.
Tehran stressed the warships would stay out of the territorial waters of other countries.
The coalition has imposed an air and sea blockade on Yemen.
A member of the airport security walks in front of a destroyed Felix Airways plane, after it was hit
Rulers of GCC countries -- many of which have taken part in a US-led air campaign against the Islamic State
(IS) group in Iraq and Syria -- are preparing to meet US President Barack Obama in mid-May.
In a sign of the gains made by jihadists who have capitalised on the country's chaos, IS claimed to have
beheaded or shot dead 15 Yemeni soldiers, according to SITE Intelligence Group, a US monitor.
Al-Qaeda has traditionally been Yemen's dominant jihadist group, but IS on March 20 claimed its first attacks.
- Fuel shortages threaten aid efforts Despite an announcement last week that the campaign was moving into a new phase, daily coalition air strikes
continued, hitting Huthi locations in the southern port city of Aden and elsewhere, as pro and anti-government
forces battled on the ground.
Yemeni supporters of the Shiite Huthi rebel group take part in a demonstration against the air strik
The rebels have refused to withdraw from seized territory, in defiance of a Security Council resolution imposing
an arms embargo and sanctions on their leaders.
The Huthis have allied with troops loyal to former strongman Ali Abdullah Saleh, clashing with militia in Aden
known as "Popular Resistance" units loyal to Hadi.

The UN says about half of the more than 1,000 people killed since late March were civilians, and millions of
people have been affected by the conflict.
Half the population is short of food but a lack of fuel threatens to halt emergency ration deliveries, the UN said.
The GCC urged the international community to rush in more humanitarian aid.

MAKE IN INDIA
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in his maiden Independence Day speech, articulated his vision of several social
and economic policy objectives of his government. It is generally agreed that the objectives so forcefully
expressed by him are unexceptionable, but what is required, and often difficult, is their effective translation into
practiceThe Prime Minister must be commended for stating so clearly that domestic manufacturing will be the
core and central tenet of his foreign investment policy as that puts job creation or employment generation at the
top of the objectives in inviting foreign investment to the country.
Global manufacturing hub
This welcome emphasis in our foreign investment policy on efficient and competitive domestic manufacturing
will serve multiple objectives. First and foremost, it will enhance job opportunities within the country; second,
it will minimisze the imports of such products into the country, thereby mitigating the pressure on our trade
deficit; third, in the long run, if not in the near-term, it will help augment and diversify our exports from the
manufacturing sector; fourth, it will help in bringing latest technologies into the countryand lastly, such
domestic manufacturing will help minimize some of the trade frictions we have with other countries. The
importance of domestic manufacturing with foreign investment in reducing trade frictions with other countries
is at present ignored or underestimated. As a corollary, the focus on world-class domestic manufacturing may
also be the best way to cope with globalisation and to maximise the possible benefits from it. The size of our
domestic market and the abundant availability of skilled and technical manpower at low cost is a leverage that
we need to put to use consciously to induce foreign investors to make India as a manufacturing hub in their
operations. If there is one lesson we can learn from the Chinese, it is how the size of the domestic market and
the availability of skilled and disciplined manpower could be put to effective use for the industrial and
technological development of the country with foreign investment.
It is, however, in the translation of the policy into practice that co-ordinated action is needed on several fronts.
First, it is of paramount importance that the foreign investment, foreign trade and intellectual property rights
(IPR) policies are viewed in a holistic manner to ensure that they mutually reinforce each other in achieving the
policy objective ofworld-class domestic manufacturing.
Second, with respect to the broad contours of the foreign investment policy, it needs to be remembered that
investment opportunities, as reflected by our large domestic market and low-cost skilled and unskilled
manpower, may be a necessary, but not a sufficient condition, to induce foreign investors to come to India with
their capital and technology. The congeniality of the investment climate or environment, as reflected in the
stability of the policies and the rules as well as the conditions attached to the approval of the investments, is
even more important to assure foreign investors of fair and non-discriminatory treatment.
The focus of our foreign investment policy should be on the positive aspects of what is produced in India, with
what kind of technology and skills, how efficiently and competitively it is produced, and whether it is of worldclass standards, and not on negative aspects such as ownership and control, enterprise-specific performance
requirements, or other conditions that interfere with the internal commercial decisions of the enterprises.

Competitive environment
The best way to ensure that foreign investment is of a high quality and yields value to the country is to have a
policy framework that requires it to operate in an unprotected, open and competitive environment, and not
behind high tariff walls or import restrictions, nor with the aid of subsidies or other giveaways.
Third, with respect to the contours of the foreign trade policy, it is by and large confined now to dealing with
exports and imports compartmentally encouragement of exports with various kinds of subsidies and propups, and curtailment of imports by high tariffs and other so-called trade remedy measures like anti-dumping or
countervailing duties or other import restrictions. Encouragement of domestic manufacturing of world-class
standards, either by domestic or foreign investors or both, has not been a major objective of our foreign trade
policy so far.
Our foreign trade policy must recognise that encouragement of domestic manufacturing of world-class
standards, catering solely even to our own market, is a preferable alternative to protection and subsidisation
through high tariffs, trade remedy measures and financial giveaways. Rather, the policy must encourage freer
imports of capital goods, industrial raw materials, components, tools and devices, as well as technology-laden
imports, with a view to upgrading the quality and competitiveness of our domestic manufacturing.
Fourth, the importance of the protection of intellectual property rights (IPRs) in the scheme of attracting foreign
investment and establishing high quality domestic manufacturing must not be overlooked.
Ensure IP protection
IPRs do not consist only of pharmaceutical patents as is commonly understood in our country: they include as
well copyright (computer software in our country is protected by copyright), trademarks, trade secrets,
geographical indications, designs, trade secrets, business confidential information and data, and the like.
Even if our IPR policies do not have domestic manufacturing as a central objective, they need to be
implemented in such a way that they do not impede or deter technology-oriented domestic investments from
foreign investors. The protection of patents, trademarks, trade secrets, layout designs and the like is crucial to
these and other sectors where we want foreign investment of high quality with modern technologies. Our
intellectual property laws are largely in conformity with international standards as reflected in the TRIPS
Agreement of the WTO and other international conventions to which we have subscribed. Yet we tend to create
an impression around the world that we do not value intellectual property or respect its adequate protection.
Address local woes
One other aspect that does not fall within the ambit of the aforesaid policies, but which is crucial to competitive
domestic manufacturing needs to be touched upon here. Among the major reasons for our domestic industry
being competitively disadvantaged vis-a-vis the rest of the world, two stand out prominently: first, the
inadequacy and poor quality of our infrastructure, and second, the high cost of our capital. While protection and
subsidisation is not the solution, this huge disadvantage faced by the domestic industry requires to be addressed
with priority and ways and means found to mitigate it.
To conclude this essay in a lighter vein, in one of the famous cartoons of Dennis the Menace, the irrepressible
boy tells his father with a logic beyond his years: Dad, if everything is made in China, then God must be living
in China. When the Prime Ministers vision of Come, Make in India is realised, and India becomes an
enviable manufacturing hub of the world, Dennis may perhaps find God shifting hisP residence to India!