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

by Kristian Coates Ulrichsen

Insecure Gulf examines how the concept of Arabian/Persian Gulf 'security' is evolving in response to new challenges that are increasingly non-military and longer-term. Food, water and energy security, managing and mitigating the impact of environmental degradation and climate change, addressing demographic pressures and the youth bulge and reformulating structural economic deficiencies, in addition to dealing with the fallout from progressive state failure in Yemen, require a broad, global and multi-dimensional approach to Gulf security. While 'traditional' threats from Iraq, Iran, nuclear proliferation and trans-national terrorism remain robust, these new challenges to Gulf security have the potential to strike at the heart of the social contract and redistributive mechanisms that bind state and society in the Arab oil monarchies.
Insecure Gulf explores the relationship between 'traditional' and 'new' security challenges and situates them within the changing political economy of the GCC states as they move toward post-oil structures of governance. It describes how regimes are anticipating and reacting to the shifting security paradigm, and contextualizes these changes within the broader political, economic, social and demographic framework. It also argues that a holistic approach to security is necessary for regimes to renew their sources of legitimacy in a globalizing world.

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

266 pages, Kindle Edition

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 Szalai · 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.