"Never before in history has a country had to introduce electricity, running water, telephones, telex and color television all at the same time. "
So muses one Saudi Arabian businessman about his country's frenetic pace of development. His comments point to a paradox of swiftly growing importance for the world economy. By many of the standard measures of power, Saudi Arabia should be a weak state. Its population is sparse: only 7.5 million people in a country twice the size of Western Europe. Its army is tiny: a mere 35,000 men. Economically, the...
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