Blog Post

Iran’s threats involving undersea internet cables and digital infrastructure in the Strait of Hormuz have transformed the crisis from an energy chokepoint into a hybrid risk for Gulf Arab economies.

A misreading of the Belt and Road Initiative has prompted a regional scramble to develop economic corridors ahead of the more foundational development of integrated manufacturing and intraregional trade.

If the memorandum of understanding between the United States and Iran holds, the Saudi economy will grow strongly in the second half of 2026 and into 2027.

The Trump administration has positioned the United States at a crossroads between a new regime of containment against Iran or a historic drawdown of U.S. influence in the Gulf and broader Middle East.

The Houthi movement is looking to Moscow and Beijing for the international standing Washington denies it.

Saudi Arabia is eyeing the growth of a sovereign compute exchange model that, like OPEC for crude, would let it shape and stabilize long-term compute costs.

Investment priorities are already shifting toward infrastructure resilience, export diversification, and development of domestic energy resources.

A strong relationship with the GCC acts as a stabilizing force for an inherently fragile Iraqi state. But to maintain this, Iraq needs to pair sophisticated regional diplomacy with assertive control over the nonstate actors operating within its borders.