The Future of Monarchy in Asia

In the latter half of the twentieth century almost all despots of Asia and Africa were demolished by their people or army: in Egypt, Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan, Ethiopia and Iran, etc. However, there are still absolute monarchs in the Middle East (Saudi Arabia or the Gulf Countries) and Southeast Asia (Brunei). Especially, the kings and emirs of the Middle East could survive the “Arab Spring” in 2010–2012. One of the reasons why these absolute monarchs are able to maintain their regime is their “dynastic monarchy” which monopolizes almost all of the important offices of the governments and armies in their countries. However, the situation has been changing a little bit and their regimes have become more fragile recently.