Saudi King Abdullah is not attending the Sept. 24-25 G-20 summit in Pittsburgh because of his prior commitments with the Sept. 23 opening of the new King Abdullah University of Science & Technology (KAUST). Abdullah presided over the opening ceremony, along with key members of the Saudi ruling elite and many foreign dignitaries. Significantly, the kingdom's strict moral code will not apply on the 14-square mile campus near the village of Thuwal, 50 miles north of the Red Sea port city of Jeddah. Instead, men and women will be able to mix freely, and women will not have to wear veils and can drive. KAUST is accordingly the latest, and perhaps the most prominent, manifestation of King Abdullah's reform initiative. Already, 800 students from around the world — only 15 percent of its students are Saudi — are enrolled in masters' and doctoral programs. (The university is set to double within the decade). KAUST's generous financial backing means students will receive full scholarships plus a stipend. The university boasts a great deal of advanced equipment, such as the fastest computer in the Middle East and 10 nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometers. Classes will be taught in English, and will focus on the sciences, such as computer science, bioscience and various engineering specialties. The university will focus on collaborative work with the private sector and with other research institutions. The Saudis have no shortage of money given their petrodollars. But KAUST is no idle indulgence. In the post-9/11 world, the Saudis have faced both domestic and foreign pressure to engage in reforms. In keeping with its historic behavior, the ruling House of Saud realizes the need to cope with religious conservatism to ensure stability in an age of transnational Islamist militancy (though more conservative members of the Saudi royal family, like Interior Minister Prince Nayef will find the KAUST move somewhat unnerving — but not to the extent that they would work against it). But this leaves Saudi Arabia's rulers facing a catch-22 in which it must reform, but any reforms will collide with the ultraconservative culture that has dominated the kingdom since its foundations were laid in the mid-18th century. Along with a series of other reform moves taking place in the kingdom, KAUST has fanned the flames of the reformist versus conservative struggle, in this case between a strict interpretation of Islam and the desire gradually to move away from the ultraconservative Wahhabi form of Islam. KAUST is part of a strategy to create spaces of relative liberalism in the country in tandem with the Saudi monarchy's attempt to create new metropolitan hubs like the King Abdullah Economic City. The ultimate goal is to alter the ultraconservative fabric of society gradually rather than through rapid changes that could spark major unrest (though Riyadh also hopes to create a skilled workforce to reduce its current heavy reliance on foreign technical expertise). KAUST was built in the historically relatively relaxed culture of the Hejaz, as opposed to the much stricter interior region known as the Nejd, where Wahhabism arose some 250 years ago. While KAUST is not the first such oasis where the law of the land has not been applied — state-owned oil firm Saudi Arabian Oil Co. has long had similar sprawling compounds for foreigners, especially Western expatriates — such facilities have remained out of public view. Moreover, KAUST is the first such oasis that includes Saudi nationals. Though gradualist in its approach, the Saudi strategy is unlikely to avoid problems. At best, it will delay a backlash from socially conservative elements, especially the powerful religious class. The religious establishment — which occupies a tough position between competing pressures from the monarchy and the militants — and especially the religious police force known as the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, more commonly known as the Mutawwa, already is frustrated with what its sees as slow erosion of the country's Islamic character. In June, the Mutawwa cracked down on a limited-access residential and resort community north of Jeddah not too far from KAUST, where mixing between the genders reportedly occurred. Moreover, relying as it does on creating a sort of ivory tower, the strategy represents a very top-down approach of effecting social change: While and elite receives advanced degrees, the general education system remains virtually untouched. (Saudi Aramco will oversee KAUST, not the Saudi Education Ministry.) Moreover, KAUST comes at a time of multiple pressure on Riyadh from jihadists, conservatives, reformists, assertive minorities (e.g., Shia and Ismailis), the weakening of the Yemeni state south of the border, an assertive Iran and a pending leadership transition. But given the historical resilience of the House of Saud in the face of external and internal challenges, one cannot rule out the potential of immense dividends from reform projects like KAUST.