The relationship between economic and political stability remains under-researched. This paper looks at the sources and types of data necessary to measure the true economic cost of political instability and violence from the disturbances across the Arab world which occurred in 2011, but which have continued to rumble on in many Middle Eastern countries. The impact of violence on the economy is analysed from the perspective of the Kingdom of Bahrain, which is a tolerant Gulf state with an open economy and which has been steadily diversifying away from an over-reliance on oil extraction. The point of this paper is to demonstrate how economic stability and national prosperity may be endangered by political movements.