The post-Arab Spring collapse of decades-old regimes inaugurated a decade of re-shaping for the geopolitical order in the Middle East and North Africa region. A multipolar disorder ensued, solidified by the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Amid general bewilderment, the small monarchies of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) spent the decade between 2011 and 2022 trying to re-shape regional equilibria as protagonists. This book applies an original theoretical framework to unpack the threat perceptions and strategic calculus driving the behaviour of these new impactful regional players. Six chapters look at the six GCC monarchies individually. The author challenges commonly held narratives and goes beyond attention-grabbing headlines and thus provides reading keys to the past, present and future of policy-making in the Gulf monarchies, middle powers destined to play an oversized role in the new multipolar world.
By:
Cinzia Bianco Imprint: Manchester University Press Country of Publication: United Kingdom Dimensions:
Height: 234mm,
Width: 156mm,
ISBN:9781526170842 ISBN 10: 1526170841 Series:Identities and Geopolitics in the Middle East Pages: 216 Publication Date:17 April 2024 Audience:
College/higher education
,
Professional and scholarly
,
Primary
,
Undergraduate
Format:Hardback Publisher's Status: Active
Introduction 1 The geopolitics of polarisation in the Gulf 2 Theoretical framework Part I: Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and the UAE: the elusive quest for a security alliance 3 Bahrain 4 Saudi Arabia 5 The United Arab Emirates Part II: Kuwait and Oman: hedging between security and stability 6 Kuwait 7 Oman Part III: The centrifugal nature of Qatar’s security 8 Qatar 9 Conclusions -- .
Cinzia Bianco is a Senior Research Fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations