Saudi Arabia and Liberalization

The Daily Telegraph's David Blair has a commentary on the visit to Britain by King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia. Many people, of course, are upset that the king of an absolute monarchy is being given a royal welcome. But, as I observed, what is the realistic alternative to encouraging the steady, albeit slow, development toward a liberalized form of government?

Holding talks with Saudi Arabia, or any other non-democratic state, doesn't signal a hypocritical lack of commitment to a more desirable form of government. In truth, the alternatives are few, namely: warfare (no one needs to be reminded of the Iraq debacle); sanctions (in a global economy states have a multitude of alternatives-- witness Iran's re-orientation toward China due to sanction pressures); and, support for opposition groups (where the effort is frequently offset by normalized relations with governing authorities). Does this mean we give up on promoting liberal government? Of course not. It merely tells us that the effort takes time and intelligence to produce that desirable outcome. King Abdullah is making such liberalizing efforts himself by endowing a new university to the tune of $12.5 billion. The NYTimes reports that this effort will, among other things, allow men and women to study together, prohibit the presence of the country's religious police, and welcome all religious and ethnic groups. The West ought to welcome and support such efforts and urge on similar developments. It's certainly better than than smugly demanding reforms that will be rejected out of hand but, pathetically, make us feel better about ourselves. Or is that our goal after all?