Why is the Middle East the only place in the world where ruling monarchies remain viable?

The Middle East is the only place in the world where ruling monarchies reside and they are conspicuous by their importance there. They rule more than a third of the countries of the Arab league. Taken together, the kings in Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, the sultan of Oman and the amirs of the smaller Gulf States, have almost forty million subjects.1 And these are only the survivors; just a few years ago the Middle East fairly bristled with crowns: the Egyptian King reigned until 1952, Iraq until 1958, Yemen until 1962. Those that have survived are now enjoying a period of generational change and institutional renewal. Having withstood half a century of struggle again radical ideologies, the Arab world’s monarchs can today look with satisfaction on the fact the fact that not one of their numbers had succumbed to revolution since the overthrow of Libya’s King Idris in 1969.2 This gives the Middle East a higher proportion of monarchies than any other region of the world. This e...