What replaces it if it loses stability or falls apart? Would it not be replaced by a government dominated by the people engaged in behavior you detest? It seems more likely that enacting more freedoms would instead result in civil war dominated by those who are more repressive, and likely the domination by the princes aligned with those perspectives.

Instead, we see a slow progress which is painful, but may be the best that can be hoped for.

I'm having a hard time figuring out what kind of olympic level mental gymnastics I need to engage in to be able to view a butchering of a US permanent resident who works for a major US newspaper in a consulate on a territory of a NATO country and lying about it being a "progress" but I'm probably just not understanding the delicate picture

I was referencing the broader program of social change Mohammed bin Salman has begun to enact (driving, concerts, movie theaters, women working, anti-corruption), as contrasted to the more regressive opinions of his predecessors any likely successors.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/saudi-women-drivers-face-one-la...

So in this case the end justifies the means, right?

Why would it lose stability and fall apart? Saudi Arabia is about as stable as bad places come, which is what makes it is so terrible. This is exactly the sort of country you should pressure to reform. Otherwise might as well just come out and say that it was all just an excuse to freely meddle with countries we don't like.

I don't think it would, but that is what the parent comment suggested.

How has that strategy worked out for Cuba / Iran / North Korea?

> How has that strategy worked out for Cuba / Iran / North Korea?

It hasn't been attempted. Kim Jong-un, for example, has been raised in Switzerland, dito for MANY children of autocracies, dictatorships and other detestable regimes from all over the world. Their blood money (or, in earlier times their blood diamonds) was, is and always will be welcome for Western banks.

I don't think you'd even need to block the non-royals for this to be effective.

If France and/or the UK put anyone with "Al-Saud" in their last name on a no entry list, MBS would be gone in weeks.