Saudi Arabia must become a new Dubai

Although probably not possessed of the liberal sensibilities that would see him accepted for membership by, say, the Soho House group, Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince and de-facto ruler Mohammed bin Salman, or MBS as the 32 year-old is known, is nevertheless largely good news, certainly compared to what has gone before. Commentators who are so outraged by the headline grabbing foreign policy initiatives that bear his fingerprints – the disastrous proxy war with Iran in Yemen, for example, or the blockade of Qatar, or the softer line on Israel, or even the cosying up to Trump’s White House – that they cannot see the good work he is doing are missing the point. Foreign policy, although important, is by no means Saudi Arabia’s most pressing problem. Ultimately, MBS will be judged on one thing only: his ability to do the seemingly impossible – to open up and make attractive a domestic economy and society that has always seemed, to foreigners, anything but.