Bilal Wahab, Washington Institute for Near East Policy, December 2019
With permission read full article at Washington Institute.
The Middle East is among the world’s richest regions in natural resources, but despite the Persian Gulf’s ostentatious oil wealth, as a whole, the region teeters on the economic precipice. East Asia, South Asia, and even Latin America—once peers in business and development—have left the Middle East in the dust. Rather than embark on slow and steady growth, Middle Eastern economies remain trapped by boom-and-bust cycles of economic development, often a case of two steps forward, two steps back.