The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is a sovereign Arab Islamic state and an absolute monarchy located in West Asia, covering the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula. The modern state was founded in 1932 by King Abdulaziz bin Abdul Rahman Al Saud, who unified the regions of Hejaz, Najd, and parts of Eastern and Southern Arabia through a series of military and political campaigns that began in 1902 with the capture of Riyadh. The problem solved was the fragmentation of the Arabian Peninsula into various regions and tribal rule, consolidating them into a single, unified state under the House of Saud.
The country's governing mechanism is outlined in the Basic Law of Governance, a constitution-like charter issued by King Fahd in 1992. Article 1 of the Basic Law states that the constitution of Saudi Arabia is "the Holy Qur'an, and the Sunnah (Traditions)" of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, and its official religion is Islam. Article 5 establishes the system of rule as a monarchy, limited to the sons and descendants of the founder King Abdulaziz Al Saud. The King is the final authority for the judicial, executive, and regulatory branches, and he must rule according to the dictates of Islam and supervise the implementation of Shari'ah. The discovery of petroleum in 1938 made the kingdom the world's second-largest oil producer and a leading oil exporter, making its economy the largest in the Middle East.
Saudi Arabia is a key member of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). The most significant recent change is the launch of Saudi Vision 2030 in 2016, an ambitious roadmap supervised by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. This initiative aims to diversify the economy away from its heavy reliance on oil, which still accounts for approximately 40% of its GDP, by expanding non-oil sectors like tourism, logistics, and mining. The Vision has also coincided with social reforms, such as lifting the ban on women driving in June 2018 and increasing women's participation in the labor market from around 20% to over 35%. The core structure of the absolute monarchy and the primacy of the Qur'an and Sunnah as the constitution, as stated in the 1992 Basic Law, has stayed the same.