On The Issues Episode 95: David Rundell

On the Issues with Alon Ben-Meir

Today’s guest is David Rundell, a former American diplomat who served for thirty years in the Foreign Service, including fifteen in Saudi Arabia, and is widely regarded as one of America’s leading experts on Saudi Arabia. In this episode, we discuss Biden’s visit to Saudi Arabia, efforts to mend the relationship between the US and Saudi Arabia in the aftermath of the death of Jamal Khashoggi, and the current state of the global oil market. Full bio David Rundell served as an American diplomat for thirty years in Washington, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia and the United Arab Emirates. He is the author of VISION OR MIRAGE: Saudi Arabia at the Crossroads (I.B. Tauris, September 17, 2020). Widely regarded as one America's leading experts on Saudi Arabia, he spent fifteen years in the country where he worked at the Embassy in Riyadh as well as the Consulates in Jeddah and Dhahran. His assignments in Saudi Arabia included the Chief of Mission, Charge d'Affaires, Deputy Chief of Mission, Political Counselor, Economic Counselor, Commercial Counselor, and Commercial Attaché. He has numerous awards for his analytical reporting and participated in Operation Desert Storm, Saudi accession to the World Trade Organization and the defeat of Al Qaida's terror campaign. After retiring from the Foreign Service he spent three years at the Boston-based consultancy Monitor Group before joining Arabia Analytica as a partner. He lives in Dubai and travels regularly to Saudi Arabia.