Fascinating insight into the Saudi succession process.
Prince Muqrin is the youngest surviving son of the late Ibn Saud (a.k.a. King Abdulaziz), the founder of Saudi Arabia. He is now the third most powerful person in the kingdom, behind King Abdullah (who also serves as prime minister) and Crown Prince Salman (the deputy prime minister). Both of these men are ailing, however: Abdullah (age 90) is rarely seen standing upright and has a limited attention span, and Salman (77) has dementia. In comparison, Muqrin (70) appears to be in good health.
Thing is, you get lots of commentary about how structural factors mean that China has to change, but I've never seen any such learned analysis of the House of Sordid, despite its obvious decrepitude.
Well, as long as I'm here, I remember this article striking me as pretty good.
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2013/jan/10/will-saudi-arabia-ever-change/?pagination=false
Posted by: godoggo | February 14, 2013 at 12:44 AM
Whenevr I talk to oil industry people about the political environments in which they work, it is clear that they see Saudi Arabia as the model. For them, the problem with Nigeria is that it is so different from Saudi Arabia.
Posted by: Guano | February 14, 2013 at 06:59 AM
I do like that URL, particularly the suffix:
http://thediplomat.com/2013/02/13/5-ways-china-could-become-a-democracy/3/?all=true
The "all=as-good-a-guess-as-any-other" syntax is deprecated.
Posted by: Phil | February 14, 2013 at 11:19 AM