Description
Book SynopsisThe 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.
Table of ContentsIntroduction
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
