Saudis largely do not support IS, but the fraction who do pose a serious threat.
Part Two: After decades of declining popularity under the ascendance of political Islam, Arabism is seeing a revival of sorts among Saudi youth as a way out of the sectarian conflicts now gripping the region.
Part One: The kingdom's official version of Islam, Wahhabism, has dampened Saudi creativity and impeded government modernization programs. But reform is in the air.
Analysis: Syria, Iran, Egypt and oil are pushing the two countries apart, as President Obama's recent trip to the kingdom showed.
From Iraq to Syria, what might look like domestic conflicts are often proxy battles in a much larger war.
Scholars and analysts in Washington, DC predict the "intensification" of Sunni-Shia violence.
Western Studies Institute is first of its kind in all of Middle East.
Sultan bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud, the longtime pillar of Saudi Arabia's ruling family, is believed to have had cancer.
King Abdullah's decree — which will also put women on the country's top advisory council — an example of the delicate balance between modernization and Islamic tradition.
Still barred from driving automobiles — and obliged to defer to men in most life decisions — progress is slow.
The kingdom adjusts its international Islamic outreach.