For all our sakes, Saudi Arabia needs regime change - and fast

The beheading of the American engineer Paul Johnson and the killing of the local al-Qaeda leader, Abdul Aziz al-Muqrin, at the weekend have refocused world attention on Saudi Arabia. The Saudi regime is indeed in the grip of a serious legitimacy crisis. The main cause is not al-Qaeda and its associated violent activities. It is rather a stubborn reluctance by the ruling Ibn Saud family - a close regional ally of the United States for 60 years - to create a viable, institutionalised system of governance, and to manage Saudi Arabia's immense oil wealth in such a way as to promote the common good and democratic values. Its intensified campaign against terrorism will yield little unless it is accompanied by structural reforms to enable many Saudis not to feel alienated and threatened with a loss of their Islamic identity through the association of their rulers with the US. The regime has rested on spent political capital for too long. Its traditional formula based on an interactive manipulation of politics, Islam (and a very narrowly interpreted version of it) and oil wealth to generate a foundation of political legitimacy is coming unstuck. While seeking to project a benevolent and reformist image, in reality it has failed to build a polity where political inclusiveness, the rule of law, the separation of powers, an independent judiciary and observance of human rights underpin the operation of state and society.