KHOBAR, Saudi Arabia — Within a week, two events on the manicured corniche of this seaside town set tongues wagging and heads shaking while Saudis sought explanations. The riot came first. Al Khobar’s double-lane, palm-fringed corniche was packed with families celebrating National Day on Sept. 23. The crowd was especially large this year because the holiday fell amid Eid vacation at the end of Ramadan. Music blared from cars, fireworks lit the sky. The humid air was full of energy.

The dismal science of economics is, by most definitions, about finding the most efficient allocation of resources. And that goes for individuals, companies, governments and — yes — criminals. Edward Miguel is an expert on that last category. He's the co-author, with Raymond Fisman, of “Economic Gangsters: Corruption, Violence and the Poverty of Nations.” Published in late 2008, the authors use new data, innovative number-crunching and various pattern recognition models to plumb the worlds of kleptocrats, corruption, black marketeers and violence.

With political and civil unrest gripping Iran, what does the country’s neighbor and regional rival, Saudi Arabia, think? We asked Middle East expert Rachel Bronson, vice president of programs and studies at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, for her thoughts. Bronson’s book, “Thicker than Oil: America's Uneasy Partnership with Saudi Arabia” was published in May 2006 by the Oxford University Press. How would you characterize the relationship between Iran and Saudi Arabia right now?