Japan's case is instructive. It rose from the radioactive ashes of World War II to become the leading Asian economy in just years. Still, it did not translate its economic strength into military prowess out of deference to the security umbrella provided by its protective alliance with the US. Germany is another example of how a country, even after its reunification, abjured military power and invested instead in its membership of the European Union, which itself is a largely pacifist regional organisation.
Saudi Arabia occupies a relatively safe spot on a world map that is being torn asunder by the strategic contest between the US and China for global supremacy. The spot is safe because Saudi Arabia is friendly to both countries, to the extent that neither the US nor China can afford to ignore the Saudi factor in Middle Eastern and African security, without which global stability cannot be imagined.
What is the Saudi factor? To me, it is the ability of Saudi Arabia to use its national wealth to possess and exercise commensurate international power. This might sound like a platitude: After all, which country would not turn its wealth into power? The truth is that there are such countries and regions.
