KSA's silent revolution: is MBS an 'Arab Deng Xiaoping'?

The recent rapprochement between Iran and Saudi Arabia, brokered by China, has drawn attention to the huge geopolitical change taking place in the Middle East, with China displacing the US as an 'honest broker' in disputes. What is less talked about and which is actually an epochal, tectonic shift in the Middle East is the remarkable transformation in Saudi state and society - actually, a silent revolution spearheaded by their young reformist Prime Minister and heir apparent, Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman (MBS). A once conservative, almost obscurantist monarchy is slowly but surely being transformed into an open, liberal society, where women's rights now go hand in hand with Saudi Arabia's leap into a 21st Century hi-tech, digital economic hub in the heart of the Muslim World.

Interestingly, the closest example of such a transformation is China's 'Reform and Opening Up' initiated by the great visionary leader, Deng Xiaoping, four decades ago which changed China from a poor, weak and isolated country into a rich, strong, global leader that today competes with US.

Is MBS embarked on a similar path to assume the mantle of an 'Arab Deng Xiaoping'?

Comparing the two reformers, certain similarities stand out. Both Deng Xiaoping and MBS demonstrated single-minded determination in pursuing what they felt was a necessary 'course correction' for their respective countries to move forward and change lives of their people for the better. Both were products of an entrenched and closed system, which they felt needed reform and overhaul. Both showed a pragmatic streak and a practical 'can do' approach, dispensing with ideology, which earlier influenced most decisions. Deng Xiaoping famously emphasised to 'seek truth from facts'. Both successfully unloaded political 'extra baggage' to move forward - Tiananmen 1989 in the case of Deng Xiaoping and Khashoggi 2018 in the case of MBS. Both produced economic visions of a better tomorrow through focus on 'model' cities as success stories to showcase the changes (Shenzhen in China and Neom in Saudi Arabia). Both reformers shifted their countries foreign policy focus from a narrow, ideological prism to a broader, inclusive globalist worldview, prioritising trade, investment, reconciliation and education. Both had to overcome Western sceptics, who were convinced that neither Deng nor MBS could overcome the odds which they inherited by building anew and presiding over a peaceful, silent revolution in their...