After the US-Israel-Iran war — and the strikes that followed the cease-fire — the Gulf states find themselves dangerously exposed. Host Alistair Taylor is joined by MEI Associate Fellow Gregory Gause to discuss the war’s impact on the Gulf, their partnership with the United States, and whether the turmoil of recent months will push Gulf leaders to reassess their alliances and international engagement.
The Abraham Accords have represented a remarkable shift in U.S. Middle East policy. They reframed Arab-Israeli normalization as a result of shared interests – within the Middle East and directly with the US, rather than as a byproduct of Israeli-Palestinian peace. Signed in September 2020, on the last leg of the first Trump administration, the Accords brokered by Washington normalized relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Bahrain, followed by framework agreements with Morocco and Sudan. From the American perspective, the Accords were intended to break decades of diplomatic stagnation in the Middle East in order to establish a regional framework aligned with American strategic objectives.
أزمة المياه في الخليج: لماذا التعاون أمر بالغ الأهمية — ومعقد في الوقت نفسه
في 19 يونيو، أثارت تقارير كاذبة عن قيام إسرائيل بشن هجوم على محطة بوشهر النووية الإيرانية حالة من الذعر في جميع أنحاء الخليج. وعلى الرغم من نفي المسؤولين الإسرائيليين لهذه المزاعم، فإنها تعود إلى تحذير رئيس وزراء قطر من كارثة محتملة في حالة حدوث تلوث نووي — انقطاع المياه والغذاء والحياة — بسبب اعتماد دول الخليج على مياه البحر المحلاة. سارعت حكومات دول الخليج إلى طمأنة الجمهور بأنه لم يتم الكشف عن أي إشعاع، لكن هذه الحادثة أبرزت الشعور المتزايد بالضعف في المنطقة. ويمكن أن يساعد اتباع نهج إقليمي لأمن المياه في التخفيف من هذه المخاطر.
Over the past decade, migration to the wealthy states of the Arabian Peninsula has emerged as an increasingly central facet of scholarly attention to the region. This attention has resulted in the exponential expansion of our collective knowledge, and the near future promises even more nuanced and microcosmic analyses as recent and current fieldwork in the region bears fruit. Nevertheless, there has been little discussion of the “labor camps” in which many of the unskilled migrants dwell during their sojourn in the Gulf states.
Families and Bachelor: Visa Status, Lives, and Community Structure among Bahrain's Foreign Residents
Formal and informal practices of immigration and employment in the Gulf render inappropriate the classic image of an individual immigrant arriving to set stake and soon send for family. The majority of the foreigners in Bahrain reside there without family and until the 1980s were overwhelmingly male. Nonetheless, over the past century, the unique histories and circumstances of the various nationalities resident in Bahrain have led to the emergence and entrenchment of communities of foreigners.
The Arab world, especially the Gulf countries, face many environmental threats and problems such as desertification, biodiversity loss, marine and coastal areas pollution, air pollution, and water scarcity and quality. Beside these traditional environmental threats, various other environmental problems have begun to emerge in the last few years, related to military conflicts, construction and demolition debris, and climate change.
Climate Change Threats, Opportunities, and the GCC Countries
Originally posted April 2008
Oil and gas revenues for GCC countries have enabled exceptional and accelerated development in all aspects of life. These countries have become a hub of intense activity in many spheres—geopolitical, military, economic, industrial, construction, and tourism, to name a few. However, the scale of oil and gas production and use has also led to severe environmental problems.
“In the past week Iran’s president, Mahmud Ahmadinejad, has damned it as a ‘worthless piece of paper’ and China’s premier, Wen Jiabao, has moaned that it is causing his country ‘big pressure’. The dollar’s relentless decline—it hit a new low of $1.49 against the euro on November 21st—is prompting jibes from America’s critics, jangling investors’ nerves and giving policymakers headaches.”[1]
اقرأ مجلة الشرق الأوسط
أقدم مطبوعة محكمة مخصصة لدراسة الشرق الأوسط المعاصر، تغطي مجلة MEI الرائدة السياسة والمجتمع والثقافة في المنطقة.
