Gulf Politics and Economics in a Changing World

The following sections are included:

• Contents
• About the Editors
• About the Contributors

There was a time — less than half a century ago — when the principalities on the Arab side of the Persian Gulf were known outside of the Middle East mainly for their colorful postage stamps. A bare subsistence economy was sustained by pearling, fishing, and smuggling. Life spans were short. British officials advised and manipulated a cluster of ruling tribal families. Around 1970 a visiting American researcher was invited to watch a polo match between Brits and Pakistanis of the Trucial Oman Scouts and then taken to the officer's mess for the customary gin and tonic, where old hands reminisced about their adventures in Aden, Iraq, and Palestine. A British ambassador in Muscat told the American visitor that “this will someday be yours.” On the other side of the Gulf, the Shah was campaigning to modernize Iran to the level of Germany by the end of the twentieth century and become the regional hegemon, while in the Arab world to the west, populist, anti-imperialist, and nationalist elements were casting their eyes on the Gulf's rising oil riches. Further behind the scenes the United States was beginning to worry about “Gulf security” as Britain loosened its grip and the Soviet Union sought to expand its influence in and around the Arabian Peninsula…

The following sections are included:

• Introduction
• Methodology and Data
• Planning: What and Why
• Development Planning in the GCC Countries
• Analysis of the Plans
• Conclusion

The following sections are included:

• Introduction
• An Overview of GCC Distributional Systems and the Incentives They Create
• Sustainability Issues
• Potential Policies
• Including the Private Sector in the Distributional Bargain

The last ten years have seen an unprecedented awareness by Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) elites of the need to rethink the socioeconomic structures of their states, with the goal of addressing the challenges of sociopolitical and economic sustainability. While high oil prices arguably reduced the pressure to transform and diversify in the 1970s, the latest period of high oil prices (2004–2009) coincided with sustained economic liberalizing reforms, including changes in the role of the state, economic diversification policies, and reforms in labor markets, health, and education. These changes have had major implications for the social contract in these states, particularly in regard to the relationship between the business sector and the political authority. This Chapter argues that internal power politics within the ruling elite in Bahrain and Oman largely explain the manner in which social and economic reforms have been implemented. More precisely, one key variable whose effects will be examined is the degree of closeness or independence of the business elite to the ruling elite. By understanding the relationship between business and political elites as a crucial factor in comprehending social and economic reform, the approach adopted here aims to offer a new means of assessing challenges to political legitimacy induced by the current transformations…

For centuries, until the commercial exploitation of its massive oil and natural gas reserves, Doha, Qatar was a backwater trading city. Many people would still be hard-pressed to find it on a map. Yet, in May 2009 Doha played host to perhaps the most illustrious array of global legal luminaries in modern history. Hundreds of high court judges, respected lawyers, and high-powered legal academics from nearly 60 countries and six continents convened at the first Qatar Law Forum for three days to discuss varied issues underscoring their shared commitment to the rule of law…

For more than three decades the rentier framework has provided researchers and scholars alike with a model for discerning the nature of interactions between states and their citizens throughout the Gulf. However, only within the past few years have specialists begun to question its overly deterministic, almost predictive, shortcomings, and its failure to address the multiplex roles that individual and collective agency clearly account for in this political environment…

The following sections are included:

• Introduction
• The Failure to Address Economic and Political Challenges
• A Regional Approach to Address Problems
• The Checkered History of Regional Efforts
• Rethinking the Role of Regional Organizations
• What the GCC's Recent Actions Mean to the Region
• APEC as a Model
• An APEC-Structured GCC
• Conclusion

The key elements of Iran's foreign policy since 1979 have shown remarkable stability and continuity. The basic approach in Iranian policies regarding the United States, Russia, Europe, and major Arab countries and the Palestinian issue has fundamentally remained unchanged. Much of this consistency and continuity stems from Iran's regime type, which is one that does not quite fit the conventional understanding of the nation state, with its interests and policies defined and charted on the basis of political and geographic realities. Instead, it is based on universalism, or a global order with an Islamic worldview that is found within the geographic boundaries of Muslim societies. Such universalism also includes the “have-nots” of the world…

American policy in the Persian Gulf region has gone through three phases since the 1940s. The first, which lasted until about 1970, was driven by a mix of commercial energy interests and strategic Cold War interests, but exhibited only minimal American military commitment. The second, from about 1970 through the end of the century, was driven by strategic considerations and saw a steady buildup of American military forces in the region. During this period Washington in effect abandoned the commercial interests of American oil companies and defined its interests completely in terms of strategic Cold War and regional power considerations. Those considerations revolved around access to oil, no doubt, but not around the competition between American oil companies and other foreign oil companies or the local national oil companies. Strategic “stability” was the byword for American policy during this period, despite the important changes that were occurring in the region itself. The third period, from 2001 to the present, saw the United States abandon its interest in regional “stability” and focus on changing the status quo. This period of failed hegemony has its origins in the attacks of 11 September 2001 and crashed on the rocks of the occupation of Iraq. The Obama Administration came to power intending to return to the policy that characterized the second period, one based on American military power preserving, not challenging, the regional status quo. However, the Arab upheavals of 2011 might call into question that return to a “realist” approach to the Persian Gulf in American policy…

In March 2011 Prince Bandar bin Sultan, former ambassador to Washington and, as of July 2012, Director General of the Saudi Intelligence Agency, visited East and South Asian capitals. He began in China, then traveled to Malaysia and Indonesia, and finally went to Pakistan and India. He was carrying King Abdullah's view on the uprisings taking place in the Middle East, particularly those in Bahrain, Yemen, and Libya. The first stop on the prince's tour was Beijing, where he met with President Hu Jintao and others. The Chinese leaders stressed their country's understanding of and support for the efforts of the member states of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) to preserve peace and stability in the region…

The Middle East is a region with some of the most serious ethnic conflicts, religious discords, terrorist attacks, territorial disputes, and various other cross-border problems. Due to its unique location as a corridor of the three continents of Asia, Africa, and Europe, as well as its rich oil and natural gas reserves, the region has remained a hot spot for big powers' competition and rivalry over the past century…

The following section is included:

• Index