Chat & Chowder | The Man Who Would Be King

Join us for this installment of our popular Chat & Chowder series, featuring senior fellow at the Belfer Center at Harvard University, Karen Elliott House. Ms. House will discuss her new book, The Man Who Would be King: Mohammed bin Salman and the Transformation of Saudi Arabia.

Chat & Chowder programs are an excellent opportunity to engage with expert speakers and to network with other globally-oriented participants in an informal environment. Each event features a presentation, audience Q&A, dedicated time for networking, and (of course!) a selection of chowders and beverages.

Thanks to the generous support of The Lowell Institute, Chat & Chowder is now free of charge for all participants (Zoom live-streams remain free as well). We sincerely appreciate The Lowell Institute’s commitment to our mission, as well as the support of our venue, Foley & Lardner LLP.

Please consider helping sustain this work by making a contribution here.

This program will be streamed to Zoom from 6:15 to 7:15. To attend the program virtually, please register for the Zoom webinar here.

Advance registration is required. We cannot accommodate walk-ins for the in-person program.

Karen Elliott House is author of a new book, “The Man Who Would be King,” on Saudi Arabia and its ambitious Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. During nearly five decades of reporting from Saudi Arabia she also authored, “On Saudi Arabia: Its People, Past, Religion, Fault Lines and Future” in 2012.

Ms. House, a senior fellow at the Belfer Center at Harvard University, retired in March 2006 as Publisher of The Wall Street Journal and Senior Vice President of Dow Jones & Company. During a 32-year career with The Journal, she also served as foreign editor, diplomatic correspondent, and energy correspondent. She won a Pulitzer Prize in 1984 for international reporting for coverage of the Middle East.

She is a trustee of the RAND Corp. and the Trilateral Commission and a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin.

Based on exclusive interviews, an eye-opening biography of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS), head of the House of Saud, the calculating ruler of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and a central Middle East power broker.

Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter and former Wall Street Journal publisher, Karen House has gained unprecedented insights into Saudi Arabia and its controversial leader, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman through her more than forty years of experience covering the Arab kingdom.

House reveals a leader who like Peter the Great, is a reformer determined to modernize his kingdom but also an autocrat who jails political opponents and rival princes to assure his grip on power. Drawing on extensive interviews with the Crown Prince, his royal relatives, and his inner ring of advisors, The Man Who Would Be King explains in full what shaped the man who is reshaping Saudi Arabia.

Drawing on fresh, headline-making reporting, House balances both sides of this complex ruler. We are introduced to MBS the visionary, who has ushered in reforms for women to participate more equitably, encouraged tourism to the Kingdom, and placed long term bets on green energy and trillion dollar mega-projects like The Line, a hundred-mile-long enclosed futuristic city in the desert that will be run by AI. And we meet MBS the Machiavellian prince, widely accused of having Washington Post columnist and Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi murdered, and of sports washing the kingdom's reputation by investing billions in teams globally, from Premiere League soccer to the LIV (liv) golf tour to the World Cup which the Kingdom will host in 2034.

The Man Who Would Be King reveals MBS in all his complexities, from his rise to power and his vision for the future of his Kingdom, to his ruthless maneuvers to project power—a shrewd broker working to seal a viable deal with Israel and bring peace to Gaza while he cuts oil supplies to manipulate Western politics. It is an unprecedent and much needed in-depth portrait of the leader who, at only thirty-nine, will be a major player on the world stage for the next half century.

WorldBoston's Chat & Chowder series features key authors on international affairs in an engaging setting. In addition to discussion of a featured book (usually sold at a significant discount), the program offers the opportunity for discussion among members and guests - and of course a selection of chowders and beverages. This Chat & Chowder will be hosted in-person (from 6:00 to 7:30PM ET) and live-streamed to Zoom (from 6:15 to 7:15 PM ET only).

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

Foley & Lardner LLP, 111 Huntington Avenue, Boston, United States