In the early days of his second term, President Donald J. Trump has not shied away from exerting geoeconomic influence across the international system. He has pressured countries to invest more in the U.S. economy and reconfigure trade relations with the United States or face high tariffs. The way Trump exercises geoeconomic power has implications for the Gulf region, where some countries are themselves rising geoeconomic influencers.  

In his recent article “From Petrodollar Partners to Geo-Economic Rivals: Washington and the Arab Gulf States” for Survival: Global Politics and Strategy, Hasan Alhasan wrote that the United States’ relations with Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states have moved toward an enduring geoeconomic rivalry. Yet the geoeconomic domain may offer opportunities to deepen and expand U.S.-Gulf ties. What are the main areas of geoeconomic friction? Where do the geoeconomic interests of the United States and Gulf countries overlap? And how can a deeper understanding of geoeconomics reveal where ties stand today and where they are headed in the future?