Has the Gulf Cooperation Council Failed?
The concept of the Gulf Cooperation Council as a necessary sub-regional institution is coming into question.
The concept of the Gulf Cooperation Council as a necessary sub-regional institution is coming into question.
For now, Mohammed bin Zayed is happy to play the director allowing his young star the limelight. On June 6 in Jeddah, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) and his Abu Dhabi counterpart, Mohammed bin Zayed (MBZ), convened the first meeting of the Saudi-Emirati Coordination Council. Abu...
Although the Qatar crisis may have passed its most dangerous moment, it has had significant negative consequences for both the Gulf and Washington. Amid the fire and fury of Michael Wolff’s explosive account of the Trump presidency so far, readers hoping for greater insight into some of the...
Over the last eight years, considerations of politics and national security have come to play an influential role in the decision-making of Gulf sovereign wealth funds. In 2015, the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) — Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund (SWF) — declared its intention to invest...
Officials in Abu Dhabi and Tel Aviv appear to see a low-profile, Emirati-Israeli strategic partnership as being not only viable, but also immensely valuable. Despite the city of Dubai’s remarkable success in transforming itself into a sprawling Western-style financial hub, the United Arab...
Pakistan has no plans to join Bahrain, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the UAE in severing ties with Doha. Since June 5, Pakistan has faced what amounts to Hobson’s choice. Saudi Arabia has been asking its fellow Sunni Muslim ally: Are you with Qatar or with us? While Islamabad has expressed...
Today, Kuwaiti officials face a very different regional landscape than they did earlier this year. In July, Kuwait expelled 15 Iranian diplomats and submitted a formal letter of protest to the Lebanese government as the fallout from the “Abdali affair” reverberates around the state. Fourteen...
Seeing Iraq regain stability serves as a source of panic for some in the region. Iraq’s influential Shia leader, Muqtada al-Sadr, paid an unexpected visit to Saudi Arabia on July 28 and 29, where he met with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman and other senior officials. The meeting took...
The media and public diplomacy war between Qatar and its Gulf detractors is escalating. Expect to see some hidden skeletons revealed. Lurking below the surface of the Gulf crisis are rival, yet troubled attempts by Qatar and its detractors to use sports to boost soft power and/or launder...
For decades, Saudi Arabia and Iran have confronted each other through military involvement in proxy wars. Since the beginning of the 20th century, the Middle East has been wracked by war, conflict, insurgencies and uprisings. The Middle East of today resembles a chessboard, where many different...
Will the Qatar crisis impact Doha's ability to keep up with the global demand for LNG? The Qatar crisis raises major questions about liquified natural gas (LNG) markets, which the Arabian emirate has dominated since the 2000s. Observers of energy markets are asking if regional strife will...
Rouhani’s re-election is an opportunity for the Arab Gulf states to improve relations with Iran and promote greater regional stability. When Iranian President Hassan Rouhani was elected in 2013, the first head of state to meet with him was from the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). Oman’s...
The implications of Brexit will not be confined to the national stage. In June 2016, the British people voted to exit the European Union — a momentous choice that took the political establishment by almost complete surprise and which continues to reverberate through British politics. For a...
Oil-rich and expat-heavy states of the Gulf Cooperation Council have become a major hub and endpoint in cocaine’s eastward expansion. It seems the world is falling back in love with cocaine. According to the United Nations’ latest World Drug Report, total production in 2015 stood at 1,125...
The World Health Organization estimates that approximately 35% of the pharmaceutical market in the Middle East could be illicit. Not so long ago, Médecins Sans Frontières made a shocking discovery in the Democratic Republic of Congo: Hundreds of patients had unwittingly taken Haloperidol...
