Is Saudi Arabian Capitalism Bringing Peace To The Middle East?

The first time I met Cory Pesaturo, he had just hijacked the stage at a wedding in Boston with an accordion strapped to his chest. Little did I know he would do the impossible: make me a fan of the accordion.

Cory is — and I’m not exaggerating — the world’s best accordion player. He’s won the accordion World Championship three times. He holds the Guinness World Record for playing the accordion for the longest continuous time. He brings his accordion with him everywhere, and can play just about anything, including the accordion tracks in the feature film “Weird: The Al Yankovic Story.”

Most recently, he took his talents to Saudi Arabia, which is now officially a “major ally” of the United States. The Saudi Arabia he presents is much different from the Saudi Arabia most Americans probably imagine. — Brent Scher

***

Earlier this month, I arrived in Saudi Arabia for my second visit to a country which has always seemed like a forbidden land to the West. I’d been invited again as a guest star to play accordion in the “Riyadh Season” concert series — this time with Egypt’s biggest singing sensation, Angham.

What struck me, on both trips, was how aggressively the Saudis are betting on capitalism.

Everywhere you go, the top Western brands are visible: Dunkin’ Donuts, Texas Roadhouse, Bath & Body Works, Chuck E. Cheese, and yes, Randy’s Donuts, with the giant donut on the roof are there for you in Riyadh. There is even a Disney castle and theme park.

On every corner there seem to be concerts, tourist attractions, and massive development projects. The music you hear playing through the speakers of high-end locations? Jazz, Lady Gaga, or Burt Bacharach. The style of filming for major concerts?  Straight out of CBS’s Grammys playbook.

Could a country truly hate America if this is what I was seeing?

When I first traveled to Saudi Arabia two years ago, I didn’t even tell my father. You can’t lie to an Italian mother, of course, but my father? If he had known I was flying to a country he associated with the worst terror attack in American history, he would have tied me to my bed. Many of my friends felt the same, judging by their reactions when I returned: “Saudi Arabia? Are you insane? Are you trying to get arrested or killed?”

But over the past decade, the Kingdom, under Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, has charted a different course. One built on peace, prosperity, and a surprisingly familiar engine: Western-style capitalism.

It is true that in Saudi Arabia, you have no real rights against the state — no First Amendment protections, no guarantee of a fair trial, a mandatory dress code, and laws that make smoking pot or ordering a margarita about as plausible as Cardi B performing Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto on the accordion — a stunt I once pulled to win a national title.

Yet, regardless of this different universe of ideas from the United States, I wasn’t afraid.

The free market being unleashed in Saudi Arabia, even if still in a more state-run manner, is the greatest modern example of how a country thought to be an untrustworthy foe can turn into an important ally.

What struck me most, though, was that while I was in Saudi Arabia, a Muslim socialist won the mayor’s seat in the financial capital of the world, New York City. Three different Saudis during the trip (including a Syrian security worker at the venue who had fled Bashar al-Assad’s regime) asked me some version of the same question: “What on earth are you Americans doing electing Mamdani? He’s crazy.” This, again, from inside the very center of Islam. And even they aren’t at all sold on the politics that Zohran Mamdani represents.

My insight is anecdotal, but the friendships I’ve formed in Saudi Arabia reveal a people not so different from my own friends back home. They want peace. They want prosperity. They want their families to be happy. They want to travel. They want to have fun.

I asked them everything — about Israel, Islamic extremism, terrorism, drinking, drugs, dating, hating their boss, weekend plans, and which video games keep them up until 4:00 a.m.

Watching a group of young men in Riyadh blast pop music at 1:30 a.m. as they inched through a Dunkin’ Donuts drive-through, talking about girls and killing time, looked the same as you’d see in America. Different faiths, different cultures, same very human scene.

A handful of companies profit from global conflict. But 99.9% of businesses in a free-market economy — from Nike and Coca-Cola to Apple and Tesla — depend on global stability and rising disposable income. Peace is profitable.

In just a decade, Saudi Arabia has gone from a place many Americans fear to visit to a place I can’t recommend enough to go see. If that’s the result of “greedy capitalism,” then count me in.

Cory Pesaturo is a three-time World Champion accordionist and Guinness World Record holder who has performed on six continents and at the White House four times. In addition to giving five TEDx Talks, he is also active in the motorsports world, bringing his signature blend of innovation and artistry to audiences around the globe.