The balancer: what six weeks of Saudi decisions reveal about the region's next order

For decades, the security of this region has rested on partnerships with powers beyond it, and those partnerships remain among the Kingdom's most valuable assets. Yet the war that began on Feb. 28 has confirmed something the region had long understood. Gulf capitals were struck in a conflict they did not start, and the lesson was plain: no single partner, however capable, can carry the entire weight of a region's stability, and security that is only borrowed is never entirely one's own. The ques