Summing up: Essential. -- P. Clawson, Choice
'Professor Niblock's tautly-argued, factual, analysis offers the keys to the Saudi Kingdom to everyone interested in seriously understanding the political economy of contemporary Arabia.'- Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles KCMG LVO, HM Ambassador, Kabul.
'This is a most profound and revealing survey, packed with fresh research, sharp analysis, and new understanding. Tim Niblock writes so lucidly and logically, combining inside knowledge with detached academic scrutiny. He makes sense of the Saudi economy in the recent past and today, weighing its potential and problems, and asking the right questions about the future. This elegant, masterful, yet most accessible book is a must for anyone doing business in the Kingdom - or contemplating it.'- Robert Lacey, author of The Kingdom: Arabia and the House of Saud.
'No economy in the world is at once as opaque and as strategically significant as that of Saudi Arabia. While its oil output and revenues play a major role in the functioning of the world economy, Saudi Arabia is a major player in the Middle Eastern region, even as it confronts a range of major policy issues at home, in regard to employment, the participation of women, skills and immigration. The authors of this pioneering study, Professor Tim Niblock and Monica Malik, have performed an important service in addressing these issues in a volume that is as rich in detail as it is measured in comment. It promises to be the standard work on the topic.' - Professor Fred Halliday, Professor of International Relations, London School of Economics and Political Science, UK
'This compact volume is a model of clarity in laying out its assumptions and presenting the data, without glossing over the hazards of relying on official statistics. The writing is brisk and refreshingly free of jargon. In terms of the core message, the depiction of distinctive phases of economic planning and policy refutes simplistic accounts that portray Saudi Arabia as stagnant. This book most certainly belongs on library shelves and on the reading lists of courses with the contemporary Middle East' - David Commins, Dickinson College, International Journal of Middle East Studies, August 2009
