Renting the Casbah: Gulf States’ Foreign Policy towards North Africa since the Arab Uprisings (original) (raw)

Toby Matthiesen, “Renting the Casbah: Gulf States’ Foreign Policy towards North Africa since the Arab Uprisings”, in Kristian Coates Ulrichsen (ed.), The Changing Security Dynamics of the Persian Gulf (London: Hurst & Co, 2017), 43-59. This chapter deals with the relations between countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and the three North African countries that saw mass uprisings (Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya) since 2011. Morocco and Algeria, which survived the Arab uprisings with their political systems intact, will not be discussed in this chapter because the persistence of the old regimes either ensured unanimous Gulf support (Morocco) or limited opportunities for Gulf involvement (Algeria). Indeed, the chapter will look at the ways in which various Gulf states, above all Qatar, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Saudi Arabia, and, to a lesser extent, Kuwait have tried to influence the political transitions in Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya. It argues that the period since 2011 has witnessed a profound shift in the foreign policies of the GCC states from petrodollar diplomacy to direct involvement in politics and even military intervention.