nt has been one of
continued instability with frequent changes in leadership and coup
attempts in 1995 and 2003. The recent discovery of oil in the Gulf
of Guinea is likely to have a significant impact on the country's
economy.

Saudi Arabia
In 1902, ABD AL-AZIZ bin Abd al-Rahman Al Saud captured
Riyadh and set out on a 30-year campaign to unify the Arabian
Peninsula. A son of ABD AL-AZIZ rules the country today, and the
country's Basic Law stipulates that the throne shall remain in the
hands of the aging sons and grandsons of the kingdom's founder.
Following Iraq's invasion of Kuwait in 1990, Saudi Arabia accepted
the Kuwaiti royal family and 400,000 refugees while allowing Western
and Arab troops to deploy on its soil for the liberation of Kuwait
the following year. The continuing presence of foreign troops on
Saudi soil after Operation Desert Storm remained a source of tension
between the royal family and the public until the US military's
near-complete withdrawal to neighboring Qatar in 2003. The first
major terrorist attacks in Saudi Arabia in several years, which
occurred in May and November 2003, prompted renewed efforts on the
part of the Saudi government to counter domestic terrorism and
extremism, which also coincided with a slight upsurge in media
freedom and announcement of government plans to phase in partial
political representation. A burgeoning population, aquifer
depletion, and an economy largely dependent on petroleum output and
prices are all ongoing governmental concerns.

Senegal
Independent from France in 1960, Senegal joined with The
Gambia to form the nominal confederation of Senegambia in 1982.
However, the envisaged integration of the two countries was never
carried out, and the union was dissolved in 1989. Despite peace
talks, a southern separatist group sporadically has clashed with
government forces since 1982. Senegal has a long history of
participating in international peacekeeping.

Serbia and Montenegro
The Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes was
formed in 1918; its name was changed to Yugoslavia in 1929.
Occupation by Nazi Germany in 1941 was resisted by various
paramilitary bands that fought each other as well as the invaders.
The group headed by Marshal TITO took full control upon German
expulsion in 1945. Although Communist, his new government and its
successors (he died in 1980) managed to steer th