Analysis: Maplecroft Misses Mark in Assessment - Arabianomics

The founder of the risk-assessment consulting firm Maplecroft said today at a conference in Dubai that Saudi Arabia was the country that has the most uncertain political environment of 15 nations examined by the firm.

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Alyson Warhurst, the founder of Maplecroft, said that Saudi Arabia “faces three issues,” according to Bloomberg. “An educated and disgruntled youth buoyed by the success of the Arab Spring elsewhere, water and energy security, and general issues of oppression and the lack of political freedom.”

Saudi Arabia has social, economic and political challenges in the years and decades ahead, but considering the progress Saudi has made on these fronts in the last decade alone, the more immediate threats faced by some of the other 14 countries examined, and the forthcoming changes on the horizon for the Kingdom, the assessment appears misguided.

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