Insecure Gulf: The End of Certainty and the Transition to the Post-Oil Era

by Kristian Coates Ulrichsen

Increasingly long-term, nonmilitary challenges have remade security concerns in the Persian Gulf. The protection of food, water, and energy, the management and mitigation of environmental degradation and climate change, demographic pressures and the youth boom, the reformulation of structural deficiencies, and the fallout from progressive state failure in Yemen all require a broad, global, and multidimensional approach to achieving security in the Gulf.

While traditional threats from Iraq and Iran, nuclear proliferation, and transnational terrorism remain robust, new challenges could potentially destabilize the redistributive mechanisms of state and society in the Arab oil monarchies. "Insecure Gulf" explores this new reality, specifically, the relationship between traditional and recent security issues within the changing political economy of the Gulf Corporation Council states.

Genres: History, Politics, Middle East, Nonfiction, International Affairs

224 pages, Hardcover

First published April 1, 2011

About the author

Kristian Coates Ulrichsen is the Fellow for the Middle East at Rice University's Baker Institute for Public Policy.

Reviews

[Máté · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book, it was a great starting point for me to understand the region

[Bruce Reiter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent look at the problems the Arabian Gulf States are facing from resource depletion to political activities that threaten the various governments. The book also gives a nod to human security, a concept that was not in vogue when I was in college. There is an extensive bibliography and a notes section as well. The book is well-researched using a variety of sources. There are some comparative political issues that it would be wise for the US Executive and Legislative Branches to view with regard to our own domestic situation.