--- title: Are We Breaking Up With Saudi Arabia? description: Is the U.S.-Saudi Arabia special relationship on the rocks? Also, the rise of two-year degrees, the cricket boom goes bust and more. canonical: https://time.com/3832868/are-we-breaking-up-with-saudi-arabia/ author: TIME article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-04-23T16:01:34.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T05:04:25.945Z article:section: Ideas og:title: Are We Breaking Up With Saudi Arabia? og:description: These are today's best ideas og:url: https://time.com/3832868/are-we-breaking-up-with-saudi-arabia/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Are We Breaking Up With Saudi Arabia? twitter:description: These are today's best ideas twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Are We Breaking Up With Saudi Arabia? by [The Aspen Institute](https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute Apr 23, 2015 4:01 PM UTC by [The Aspen Institute](https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/) ## The Aspen Institute Apr 23, 2015 4:01 PM UTC **1\.** [**Is the special Saudi-U.S. relationship on the rocks?**](http://www.cfr.org/saudi-arabia/new-saudi-foreign-policy/p36456) By Ray Takeyh at the Council on Foreign Relations **2\.** [**Two-year degrees can really pay off.**](http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/04/20/us-column-weston-associatesdegree-idUSKBN0NB1UL20150420) By Liz Weston at Reuters **3\.** [**A self-contained urban farm, delivered in a box, could slash water use by 90 percent.**](http://techcrunch.com/2015/04/21/farm-in-a-box) By Danny Crichton in TechCrunch **4\.** [**How a lake full of methane could power Rwanda and DR Congo.**](http://www.technologyreview.com/photoessay/536656/lake-kivus-great-gas-gamble/) By Jonathan W. Rosen in MIT Technology Review **5\.** [**Nope, we’re not going to live on crickets in the near-future.**](http://www.popsci.com/free-lunch-and-crickets-its-complicated) By Brooke Borel in Popular Science  [_The Aspen Institute_](http://www.aspeninstitute.org/) _is an educational and policy studies organization based in Washington, D.C._ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3832868/are-we-breaking-up-with-saudi-arabia/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3832868/are-we-breaking-up-with-saudi-arabia/"},"headline":"Are We Breaking Up With Saudi Arabia?","datePublished":"2015-04-23T16:01:34.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T05:04:25.945Z","description":"These are today's best ideas","url":"https://time.com/3832868/are-we-breaking-up-with-saudi-arabia/","keywords":["Innovation","Environment","climate","Education","College","Water","Saudi Arabia","United States","methane","Rwanda","Yemen","farms","democratic republic of congo","protein","career"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"The Aspen Institute","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/the-aspen-institute/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/innovation/","name":"Innovation"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3832868/are-we-breaking-up-with-saudi-arabia/","name":"Are We Breaking Up With Saudi Arabia?"}}]}] ```