David A. Andelman, member of the board of contributors of USA Today, is the author of "A Shattered Peace: Versailles 1919 and the Price We Pay Today." He formerly served as a foreign correspondent for The New York Times and CBS News. Follow him on Twitter @DavidAndelman. The opinions in this article belong to the author.

(CNN) The timing was most fortuitous. Three weeks after Saudi Arabia's 81-year-old King Salman welcomed America's 71-year-old President Trump to considerable fanfare, then watched as the latter stumbled his way across Europe -- notably being successfully hand-wrestled by the 39-year-old President of France -- the Saudi King has elevated his 31-year-old son, Mohammed bin Salman Al-Saud to the position of crown prince and heir to the throne.

Crown Prince Mohammed will be not only the youngest heir ever to the Saudi throne, but the first ruler from the third generation after the kingdom's founder, King Abdulaziz Al-Saud.

Such a generational shift has been long desired by the nation's increasingly young population that has watched with growing dismay as one elderly monarch after another has made his way to power.

So this unprecedented -- though among Saudi-watchers not entirely unanticipated -- move has critical implications internally, regionally and globally.

What is not only a dynastic but generational shift in leadership comes at a time when the lines of power throughout the region are being swiftly and dangerously redrawn. The new crown prince is uniquely poised to maintain Saudi leadership in all the kingdom's challenges at home and abroad.

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