I’ve updated my page on global political instability above. I’ve added entries for Libya, Yemen, Egypt and Tunisia. I’ll probably add an entry for Bahrain tomorrow. I apologize for the lack of an entry today as I’ve been busy.
One caveat: While my page is meant as a guide to the most unstable countries in the world for potential expats, one must be aware that dictatorships can explode at any moment. Currently there are civil wars in two (Libya and Ivory Coast) and two others have been toppled. Two more (Bahrain and Yemen) threaten to be toppled as well. I know of no democracy in the last thirty years that has been toppled. While democracies have been toppled in the past, the regularity with which dictatorships are toppled is stunning.
Another point: dictatorships do not always become democracies. Sometimes they just become new dictatorships. A military coup, a prince betraying his father the king etc. Two of the GCC leaders betrayed their fathers to become ruler (Qatar and Oman). It remains to be seen whether this will happen in the UAE, Saudi or Kuwait. The fact that so much of the world’s oil remains in the hands of governments with no clear line of succession is deeply unsettling.
