Murtaza's Reviews > After the Sheikhs: The Coming Collapse of the Gulf Monarchies

I was very skeptical about the thesis of this book at the outset, and while I'm still not entirely convinced that the Gulf monarchies are about to collapse I'm still impressed at the strength of the case contained here.

The amount of research this short book contains is incredible, of most interest was exactly how these powers have been using their financial resources to entrench themselves all over the world. Buying up infrastructure and landmarks in Western cities, spending on development aid (always with strings attached) in the East, paying huge 'protection racket' dollars to arms manufacturers, even using money to manipulate global intellectual discourse on the Mideast, this to me was the best researched part of the book.

It was enthralling reading, and this is something that everyone should read to understand the forces that are reshaping the world right under our noses. The amount of detail provided is jaw-dropping.

The book kind of tapered of at the end, I didn't feel like his '2-5 years til collapse' hypothesis was defended tenaciously enough. If he had managed to make this case convincingly this would've been a 5 star book. Also would've appreciated some analysis of what might 'come next' after these powers go.

Nonetheless, a deeply fascinating account of these incredibly significant (despite their size) global powers and an interesting theory that will be tested in the coming few years.