Arabia

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The Arabian Kingdom encompasses the entirety of the Arabian peninsula from which it takes its name. It was formerly known as the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, after its founder and ruling family, but was renamed in 2015 to simply “Arabia” after the loss of the royal family to the alien invaders during the Two Week War. 
In the west, the country was known primarily for being one the world’s largest oil suppliers, and having an incredibly poor track record for human rights, and was commonly joked to only get away with the latter because of its position as the former. It was also known for its commonly criticized as archaic legal system, which issued brutal legal punishments to include beheading, stoning, amputation, crucifixion and lashings. It has retained its position of importance as a supplier of oil and gas to a world rebuilding from the global devastation of the Human-Vannai War. Even after fighting a grueling, lopsided war against the aliens that had taken control of the Levant region, Arabia remains one of the largest intact military powers; a might that it has in recent years bent towards open dispute with its northern neighbor Iran over dominance of the Middle East.
==History==
===Pre-War===
The modern history of Saudi Arabia began in 1938 with the discovery of massive oil fields along the coast of the Persian Gulf. Development of the oil fields would begin in 1941, providing the country with substantial economic prosperity and political leverage. This leverage was keenly felt in 1973 during the Yom Kippur War where, in boycott against western support of Israel against Egypt and Syria, oil production was reduced at a rate of 5% per month, quickly accumulating in an embargo against the United States. Other exporters joined the embargo, which spread to other importing states, leading to a global energy crisis as oil prices quadrupled. 
After the Yom Kippur War, US and Saudi relations returned to normal and further improved over the next few decades. Saudi Arabia continued to enjoy rapid technological development as it rose to become the world’s top oil exporter. Saudi Arabian foreign policy began to change with the Iranian Islamic Revolution in 1979 and the Grand Mosque Seizure at the end of that year, leading to Saudi Arabia adopting a more strict observation of Islam and granting the Ulama a greater role in government. Saudi Arabia continued to regard its northern neighbor with suspicion and caution, fearing that the revolution would inspire the Shi’ite minority that inhabited the country’s oil-producing regions to similarly rebel. In the 1980s, Saudi Arabia supported Iraq against Iran in the Iran-Iraq War, but the decision to request the intervention of the United States when Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990 caused internal controversy with the Ulama and followers of sharia law, leading to a rise in Islamic terrorism in Saudi Arabia and in the west. Coupled with this was civil unrest caused by the stagnation of the Saudi economy. This prompted slight changes in government policy, but no steps were taken towards adopting a democratic system, and signs of discontent continued through the new millennium with bombings and armed violence in major cities. In 2005, a change in leadership saw economic reforms introduced intended to reduce the country’s reliance on oil exports, and while the policy of introducing minimal changes continued, it seemed that the country was very slowly adopting slightly more moderate approaches to its civil conduct. 
===The Human-Vannai War===
The Two Week War, the opening conflict to the Human-Vannai War, was ultimately a global conflict, but the intensity of the fighting was without a doubt highest in the Middle East, where the aliens landed constructs in force. In response to the invasion, the king issued a declaration that the alien constructs would be repelled and the holy lands defended at any cost. Saudi Arabia absorbed its neighboring countries and formed a massive combined army to combat the invaders, slowing the alien’s advance at great cost in human life. After the Two Week War, Saudi military assets and support proved critical to Armor Corps Coalition operations in the middle east and, together in an uneasy alliance with Iran, formed the core of conventional military support for the final operation to push the aliens off Earth.
===Post-War===
After the war, disputes external and internal began to crop up. Figureheads of the countries that had aligned themselves under Saudi Arabia for the sake of the war effort desired independence once again, while Iran had used the opportunity to double its physical size with the acquisition of Iraq, Syria and Jordan, and now stretched all the way to the Mediterranean, and presented an indelible military threat. 
Kuwait, despite its attempts to remain independent during the Two Week War, had been absorbed by Saudi Arabia to fight the Vannai. Following the war, ethnic Iranians that had been living in Kuwait instigated calls for a return to independence, eventually leading to requests for military intervention from Iran. Although both countries were battered from their contributions to the war against the Vannai, longstanding hostilities between the two nations came to the forefront once again, leading to open conflict in 2018, just under a year after the Human-Vannai War was declared officially over. 
Moqaddas has remained thoroughly neutral in all human-vs-human conflicts since the war has ended, but the continuation of the war and the inevitably of further conflicts has seen Moqaddas leadership begin considering basing in less unstable places, with the island of Bahrain being the most likely eventual choice, as the current faction’s headquarters in the area around Riyadh is commonly seen as a sign of silent, implicit support of the Arabians. 
==Government==
Prior to the war, Saudi Arabia was an absolute monarchy ruled by a king. Advisory to the king and the royal family was the Ulama, a council of religious leaders descended from the founder of Wahhabism. The Quran and Sunnah were framed as the country’s constitution, and to this there is no separate legislative body; the Ulama are responsible for interpreting the Quran. Although the king had absolute authority, his rule was required to comply with Sharia law and 
the Quran. In practice, major policy decisions were made under consensus throughout the royal family, with considerations of the Ulama, leading tribal sheiks and heads of prominent commercial families taken into account. Relations within the vast royal family were complex, however, with divisions along succession to the throne, the role of the Ulama, and the speed and direction of various policy reforms. 
In 2014, following the formation of the combined Army of Arabia, much of the royal family, including the then king, was lost to the actions of the Vannai Puppets. This led to the Ulama filling the power vacuum left, granting the religious council direct control over the government, and the entirety of the Arabian Peninsula. Although still officially known as the Arabian Kingdom or Kingdom of Arabia in most cases, the current government is a theocratic council led by senior Ulama under the Grand Mufti of Arabia. 
==Policies==
===Military===
Prior to the Human-Vannai War, Saudi Arabia boasted one of the largest, most advanced, best funded militaries in the region, benefiting from decades of arms deals with the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, and other European countries in exchange for oil. Access to modern war materiel proved beneficial during the Two Week War and has allowed Arabia to maintain its stability and security since then. The Arabian military consists of the Arabian Army, Arabian Navy, Arabian Air Forces, Arabian Air Defenses, Arabian Strategic Missile Forces, Arabian National Guard and Arabian Border Guard.
===Economic===
The Arabian economy is largely dependent on oil exports, as it was before the war. The peninsula suffered economically as a result of disruption of international trade, but self-sufficiency in foodstuffs production allowed for relative stability. The relative peace that has followed has seen the tentative reestablishment of trade agreements, granting Arabia access to a global market in need of fuel to rebuild.
Although an incredibly wealthy country, there has existed a vast disparity between rich and poor since before the war. 
===Diplomacy===
Arabia hosts the ACC faction Moqaddas, though it has done so with various shades of enthusiasm over the years as the faction and the world at large change. Moqaddas, despite being regarded as heathens by the strict definition observed by current Arabian leadership, remain tolerated for the advantage of apparent legitimacy Moqaddas’ continued presence gives. Arabia refuses to deal with any other ACC faction, regarding Hanse as duplicitous, Armor Corps as distractable, the Engineers abhorrent, and the Green Initiative absent.
Internationally, Arabia has recognized the American Coalition as the successor state to the United States, but there has yet to be any active cooperation between the two countries. While Europe once proved to be an enthusiastic customer of Arab oil in exchange for arms, the flagrant disregard with which the European Expeditionary Fleet barged through the Suez Canal to participate in the China War was taken as incredibly disrespectful and needlessly aggressive. Diplomatic relations between the two countries has since gone cold, with the Arabs adopting a suspicious stance towards European activities. 
Category:PACYOA: TE
Category:TE Nations