Military manpower - fit for military service:
males age 15-49: 20,188 (2004 est.)
Military expenditures - dollar figure:
$500,000 (2003)
Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
0.8% (2003)
Transnational Issues Sao Tome and Principe
Disputes - international: none
This page was last updated on 10 February, 2005
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@Saudi Arabia
Introduction Saudi Arabia
Background:
In 1902, ABD AL-AZIZ bin Abd al-Rahman Al Saud captured Riyadh and
set out on a 30-year campaign to unify the Arabian Peninsula. Today,
the monarchy is ruled by a son of ABD AL-AZIZ, and the country's
Basic Law stipulates that the throne shall remain in the hands of
the aging sons and grandsons of the kingdom's founder. Following
Iraq's invasion of Kuwait in 1990, Saudi Arabia accepted the Kuwaiti
royal family and 400,000 refugees while allowing Western and Arab
troops to deploy on its soil for the liberation of Kuwait the
following year. The continuing presence of foreign troops on Saudi
soil after Operation Desert Storm remained a source of tension
between the royal family and the public until the US military's
near-complete withdrawal to neighboring Qatar in 2003. The first
major terrorist attacks in Saudi Arabia in several years, which
occurred in May and November 2003, prompted renewed efforts on the
part of the Saudi government to counter domestic terrorism and
extremism, which also coincided with a slight upsurge in media
freedom and announcement of government plans to phase in partial
political representation. A burgeoning population, aquifer
depletion, and an economy largely dependent on petroleum output and
prices are all ongoing governmental concerns.