Country risk assessment by applying multi-criteria decision-making methods: a case study to rank countries in the Middle East North Africa

The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) have been attracting many international investors for decades, but the current geopolitical situation has not shown a welcoming face towards foreign investors. Consequences of war, terror and political changes in the region have forced many international companies to reconsider their future plans in the region or withdraw their investments from the region. On the other hand, there are also companies that have faith in investing in the emerging market of the MENA with fewer competitors in the region. It must be mentioned that narrowing down the best possible decision needs research on the current situation as well as analyzing and forecasting of the upcoming situations in terms of many factors within the country concerned and the region. The Multi-Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) analysis can help investors to choose the best alternative from a set of relevant criteria. In this research, one of the well-known MCDM methods, TOPSIS, was used to rank twenty-three countries based on twenty key indicators collected from the available databanks submitted by the governments within the years 2000-2015. The outcome of these findings provides a set of country rankings for an interested group of decision makers, policy makers, stakeholders, researchers and other involved parties based on their interest in the Middle East and North Africa region in the so-called Arab Spring and post-Arab Spring environment.