The Gulf Cooperation Council is in crisis.
The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) is in crisis. Now is certainly not its first experience in disunity, but today is perhaps its gravest—as Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates, along with regional power Egypt, seek to isolate Qatar from both the GCC’s economic union and their vehemently anti-Islamist Arab security bloc. As such, analysis of trends in the foreign policies of the Gulf states is increasingly vital to unpack differences in threat perception, understand capacity in policy formulation and execution, find threads of interdependence and discover potential areas for cooperation.
AGSIW co-sponsored the Autumn 2017 Gulf Affairs journal special issue on “Foreign Policy Trends in the GCC States.” The issue was edited by Senior Resident Scholar Karen E. Young and includes an overview by Young and commentary by Ambassador Marcelle M. Wahba, AGSIW president.
Gulf states met the Syrian regime’s fall with unity and pragmatism. But already differences are emerging in response to the political transition and the possibility of chaos, extremism, and a feeble state unable to preserve its territorial integrity.
For the United States, the Houthi threat in the Red Sea should be treated as part of strategic competition instead of merely a local or regional challenge.
As 2024 comes to a close, oil markets remain under a cloud of uncertainty shaped by geopolitical risks, weaker-than-expected Chinese demand, and an evolving energy transition landscape.
Through its careful examination of the forces shaping the evolution of Gulf societies and the new generation of emerging leaders, AGSIW facilitates a richer understanding of the role the countries in this key geostrategic region can be expected to play in the 21st century.
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