The countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council are increasingly playing a more assertive role in the region. Amid geopolitical shifts, the Gulf Arab states have repositioned themselves as centers of regional power with global reach. AGSIW was pleased to host a discussion with the authors of two recent releases showing how the Gulf states are transforming their roles in the international system.
In Qatar: Securing the Global Ambitions of a City-State, David Roberts, lecturer in the Defence Studies Department at King’s College London, discusses Qatar’s changing character since a bloodless coup in 1995 brought to power a progressive emerging elite. He presents how Qatar has diversified its relations and sought to position itself as an integral diplomatic player and international mediator. He discusses the disparate, often misunderstood, policies that coalesce to propagate Qatar’s distinct brand, designed innovatively to counter a range of security concerns.
In The Gulf States in International Political Economy, Kristian Coates Ulrichsen, Baker Institute Fellow for the Middle East at Rice University, documents the startling rise of the Gulf Arab states as regional powers with international reach and provides a definitive account of how they have become embedded in the global system of power, politics, and policymaking. He presents an in-depth account of the challenges facing the region, and the process of change underway in the Gulf states.
Speakers:
David Roberts, a lecturer in the Defence Studies Department, King’s College London and author of Qatar: Securing the Global Ambitions of a City-State
Kristian Coates Ulrichsen, a Baker Institute Fellow for the Middle East, Rice University and author of The Gulf States in International Political Economy
Hussein Ibish, Senior Resident Scholar at the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington (Moderator)
Biographies:
David Roberts is a lecturer in the Defence Studies Department at King’s College London. Previously, he was the director of the Qatar office of the Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies (RUSI) Qatar. His primary research interest focuses on Qatar’s foreign policy. Roberts is the author of Qatar: Securing the Global Ambitions of a City-State. He obtained his PhD from Durham University.
Kristian Coates Ulrichsen is a Baker Institute fellow for the Middle East at Rice University. His current research examines political, economic, and security trends in the Middle East and, in particular, the GCC states’ changing position within the global order. He is the author of numerous works including The Gulf States in International Political Economy, Qatar and the Arab Spring, and Insecure Gulf: The End of Certainty and the Transition to the Post-Oil Era. Coates Ulrichsen obtained his PhD in history from the University of Cambridge.
Hussein Ibish is a senior resident scholar at the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington. He is a weekly columnist for The National (UAE) and a monthly contributing writer for The International New York Times. Ibish is also a regular contributor to many other U.S. and Middle Eastern publications. He has made thousands of radio and television appearances and was the Washington, DC correspondent for the Daily Star (Beirut). Ibish previously served as a senior fellow at the American Task Force on Palestine (ATFP), and executive director of the Hala Salaam Maksoud Foundation for Arab-American Leadership from 2004-09. From 1998-2004, Ibish served as communications director for the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee. He has a PhD in comparative literature from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
