The small island nation of Bahrain was witness to one of the most vigorous uprisings in the region. The general strike of February 2011 featured an astounding participation rate of over 70% of all employees in Bahrain. At the same time the demands of the Bahraini people – for a constitutional monarchy and not the fall of the regime – were among the most modest and pragmatic. In order to explain the resilience of the Al Khalifas, the Sunni family that has been in power since 1820, this paper will provide an analysis of the Bahrain Defense Force (BDF) as well as the various security forces that are under the Ministry of Interior. It will focus on four areas. First, it will analyze the division of labor between the Al Khalifas, in which the Ministry of Interior traditionally fell under the purview of the Prime Minister, while the BDF was the domain of the King and Crown Prince. Second, it will analyze the naturalization policies since the 1990s. Knowing that their powerbase was tiny, the Al Khalifas began a program of “importing Sunnis” from neighboring countries who were given citizenship and then hired to work in the military and security forces, from which the Shias are still excluded. Third, the paper will analyze the political economy of land usage and land reclamation, which has provided greater revenues to the ruling family than oil wealth. Finally, the paper will investigate the US security relationship with Bahrain, where it has maintained a permanent military presence longer than any other country in the region.