For the Arab States of the Gulf there are two kinds of reforms, those that are acceptable and those that are off limits. Off limit calls for reform include calling for a constitutional monarchy. Acceptable calls for reform on the other hand include advocating for women’s rights and for the election of municipal councils. Is there a middle ground? Read more »
GCC
The Brothers and the Gulf
As tensions mount in Cairo over the Muslim Brotherhood’s erratic political decisions, the Brotherhood is also trying to navigate suspicion about its motives from oil-rich countries in the Gulf. In particular, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has emerged as one of the Brotherhood’s primary antagonists: Relations have deteriorated so much that a senior Brotherhood leader recently accused the UAE, home to more than 300,000 Egyptians, of “financing the opposition” in Egypt. The UAE is a small country, and it is understandably challenged by a transnational organization that uses religion as a means of attaining political power. Read more »
Gulf Monarchies inside and outside
BloGlobal spoke to Sultan al-Qassemi about external and internal dimension of the Gulf Monarchies’ policies during the Festival of Internazionale 2012. Read more »
US elections and the Gulf states
It won’t come as a surprise to many to learn that the US presidential elections are a secondary and perhaps even a tertiary matter in the post uprising Arab world. For starters there’s a bloody civil war in Syria backed by Russia and Iran on one side and Saudi Arabia and Qatar on the other. The latter two states control and fund Al Arabiya and Al Jazeera respectively which dominate the Arab news airwaves and are busy actively marketing the agendas of the governments that fund them. But this does not mean the Arabs are uninterested in the outcome. Read more »
The black swan of the Gulf
The military and security apparatuses of these Gulf states plays a role in keeping the peace, but the best way forward is to build a civil society that is bound by a unifying mechanism such as a functioning, representative, elected parliament. Read more »
The rise of Arab republics?
The Arab world has lately been experiencing monumental changes including the realignment of political alliances, but one possible long-term outcome of the Arab uprisings may be a game of musical chairs involving the Arab monarchies, republics and Western powers. By the end of the next decade it is not unreasonable to predict a stronger relationship between certain Arab republics and the West than that which existed between Arab monarchies and the West over the past few decades. Read more »