Gulf Studies Research Papers - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Pardis Mahdavi’s Crossing the Gulf is based on ethnographic fieldwork in the Arabian Gulf that investigated immobilities and mobilities as well as familial love in the lives of migrant workers. Although her data concentrate mainly on... more

Pardis Mahdavi’s Crossing the Gulf is based on ethnographic fieldwork in the Arabian Gulf that investigated immobilities and mobilities as well as familial love in the lives of migrant workers. Although her data concentrate mainly on Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), her arguments are relevant to other countries in the area with a signifi- cant presence of domestic workers. The book offers a deeply original reading of migration and intimacy.

Héritier du trône, le prince Mohammed Ben Salman entend réformer le royaume saoudien de manière profonde et sur tous les plans. Ses promesses de s’attaquer aux causes de l’extrémisme ne sont pas forcément synonymes d’une « déwahhabisation... more

Héritier du trône, le prince Mohammed Ben Salman entend réformer le royaume saoudien de manière profonde et sur tous les plans. Ses promesses de s’attaquer aux causes de l’extrémisme ne sont pas forcément synonymes d’une « déwahhabisation » du pays. Soutien et caution religieuse de la monarchie, les dignitaires wahhabites ont toujours su s’adapter aux précédentes tentatives de contrôle.

This book looks at four dynamics in the Persian Gulf that have contributed to making the region one of the most volatile and tension-filled spots in the world. Mehran Kamrava identifies the four dynamics as: the neglect of human... more

This book looks at four dynamics in the Persian Gulf that have contributed to making the region one of the most volatile and tension-filled spots in the world. Mehran Kamrava identifies the four dynamics as: the neglect of human dimensions of security; the inherent instability involved in reliance on the United States and the exclusion of Iraq and Iran; the international and security policies pursued by inside and outside actors; and a suite of overlapping security dilemmas. These four factors combine and interact to generate long-term volatility and ongoing tensions within the Persian Gulf. Through insights from Kamrava’s interviews with Gulf elites into policy decisions, the consequences of security dilemmas, the priorities of local players, and the neglect of identity and religion, Troubled Waters examines the root causes of conflicts and crises that are currently unfolding in the region. As Kamrava demonstrates, each state in the region, including Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Qatar, has embarked on vigorous security-producing efforts as part of foreign policy, flooding the area with more munitions—thereby increasing insecurity and causing more mistrust in a part of the world that needs no more tension.

The Yemen, is the birth place and hub for a number of monotheistic religious convictions . In its North West region, just 243 kilometers away from San'aa, the official capital of the Republic of Yemen , lies a spiritual center, a holy... more

The Yemen, is the birth place and hub for a number of monotheistic religious convictions . In its North West region, just 243 kilometers away from San'aa, the official capital of the Republic of Yemen , lies a spiritual center, a holy metropolis known as Saa'da .
It is to Zaidi Islam as Qum is to Shia Islam and Mecca is to Sunni Islam. It is where the scholars dwell, to read, learn and teach their disciples to carry on the doctrine and preserve the faith throughout history.
It is here that the Houthi phenomenon first appeared.
This study focuses on the very beginnings of Houthism as a phenomenon, it's source and affiliations. It is but the first part of a series of papers that will delve into the movement as it expands over time.

From the 1950s to the 1980s, Kuwait's homes-to-buy programs had far reaching consequences on residential planning. They established the single-family house in the suburb as the standard for " modern " living. Unlicensed transformative... more

From the 1950s to the 1980s, Kuwait's homes-to-buy programs had far reaching consequences on residential planning. They established the single-family house in the suburb as the standard for " modern " living. Unlicensed transformative practices enabled customization of state built homes, while housing benefits helped Kuwaitis construct their dream house. Thus, collective models for living, such as the Al-Sawaber project, that do not support these standards have been publicly resisted. As the only built medium density housing in Kuwait City, it marked a shift in residential typology from single-family units in the suburbs to collective living in the city. Today it is under threat of demolition and has failed to establish the apartment as a suitable model for the Kuwaiti family. The paper offers another reading on the " modern " house and the processes that lead to the normalization of one form of housing consumption over another. It also proposes adaptive reuse strategies to repurpose the existing building stock, illustrating the ways in which these practices can be agents in reshaping the history of modern housing, while providing a more sustainable and affordable approach to the problem of habitat.

This chapter traces the birth, rise, and evolution of political movements in Bahrain throughout the long twentieth century, taking as its starting point the beginning of direct British presence in the local political scene in 1900, and... more

This chapter traces the birth, rise, and evolution of political movements in Bahrain throughout the long twentieth century, taking as its starting point the beginning of direct British presence in the local political scene in 1900, and ending with the aftermath of the mass protests that engulfed the islands in 2011. It highlights four intersecting dichotomies that have characterized these political movements across time: trans-sectarian versus ethnosectarian, national versus transnational, reformist versus revolutionary, and public versus underground. It sheds light on the importance of externally imposed structural factors on local developments on the island, including British colonial absolutist rule, the discovery of oil and the subsequent fluctuation in the commodity's global prices, and the rise of American hegemony. Taking its cue from the work of the autonomistas, the analysis also highlights the central role that political movements have played in shaping the actions and reactions of the state. The state's attempts to contain these movements, and the contestation between the two sides, played a central role in shaping the contours of both state and society across Bahrain's long century.

There has been a media revolution in Saudi Arabia, one that is has been tightly linked to internet technologies. YouTube, in particular, has allowed amateur Saudi youth to independently utilise popular culture and humour as potent... more

There has been a media revolution in Saudi Arabia, one that is has been tightly linked to internet technologies. YouTube, in particular, has allowed amateur Saudi youth to independently utilise popular culture and humour as potent vehicles to engage with sensitive socio-political issues and develop a virtual public sphere, turning this online platform into the cinema that the Saudis had long been deprived of. Furthermore, these shows represented a radical shift in the history of participation of Saudis in media and entertainment production and the shaping of the local social consciousness. Still, Saudi Arabia, as a case study, forces us to avoid the narrow, deterministic, technological logic that privileges the liberating power of media. The independent characteristics of the platform allowed for self-expression, which, however, became regulated and institutionalised, transforming YouTube into an ad-friendly mediascape. Consequently, this amateur content was refashioned into professionally produced audiovisual media to accommodate the public taste and the dominant market logic, and the Saudi YouTube phenomenon that started with critical attitudes turned into an aspect of capitalist power, marginalising the independent voices.

This handbook brings together a mix of established and emerging international scholars to provide valuable analytical insights as to how China’s growing Middle East presence affects intra-regional development, trade, security, and... more

This handbook brings together a mix of established and emerging international scholars to provide valuable analytical insights as to how China’s growing Middle East presence affects intra-regional development, trade, security, and diplomacy.

On 4 June 2017, Qatar was suddenly put under an embargo by its regional neighbors-an effort spearheaded by Saudi Arabia and the UAE, who cut off most of its existing land, sea, and air traffic routes. With no domestic agriculture to speak... more

On 4 June 2017, Qatar was suddenly put under an embargo by its regional neighbors-an effort spearheaded by Saudi Arabia and the UAE, who cut off most of its existing land, sea, and air traffic routes. With no domestic agriculture to speak of, Qatar's external logistics networks are essential for maintaining its food supply. The country's 2.6 million residents, many of whom flooded the grocery stores, were understandably concerned about their ability to secure food when news about the embargo broke. Eventually, new food supply chains were established, primarily with the assistance of partners in Iran and Turkey. The ongoing rift between Qatar and its neighbors in the Arabian Peninsula, manifested only in part by this effort to undermine the country's material supply networks raises a number of questions about an old idea: that of food as a 'weapon'. This article puts this concept in historical and regional perspective in the Arabian Peninsula through the lens of critical geopolitics, tracing the securitizing discourses about food security and their intertwining with narratives about territorial sovereignty, nationalism, and essentialist understandings of geography to explain the causes and effects of the food embargo in the ongoing Qatar-Gulf rift.

The long 1960s in the Gulf States was a period of great political changes, in which struggles over the very future of the region's political systems were fought out. Some of these struggles are still written out of the official histories... more

The long 1960s in the Gulf States was a period of great political changes, in which struggles over the very future of the region's political systems were fought out. Some of these struggles are still written out of the official histories of these countries. They are also seldom mentioned in the academic literature on the region, as they do not fit into dominant paradigms of the rentier state, authoritarianism, or Islam, and are also often left out in accounts on the Global Cold War more broadly.

The Palestinian-Israeli problem has been the most significant obstacle in the peace process in the Middle East. The Balfour Declaration between the British Empire and the Zionists in 1917, which explicitly declared support for creating a... more

The Palestinian-Israeli problem has been the most significant obstacle in the peace process in the Middle East. The Balfour Declaration between the British Empire and the Zionists in 1917, which explicitly declared support for creating a "national home for the Jewish people" at the expense of the Palestinians, began after the Jewish exodus to Palestine after WW1. There have been three wars between Arab-Israel and Zionist imperial control over the Palestinians, resulting in the displacement of millions of refugees and hundreds of thousands of deaths of the Palestinians. Since the 1948 war, there have been no official Arab-Israeli relations except for Egypt and Jordan. However, geopolitical changes over the last decade have completely disrupted the Middle East and North Africa's conventional political order thanks to the Arab Spring, the emergence of the Muslim Brotherhood and ISIS, and new non-Arab hegemonial forces like Iran and Turkey. Over the last decade, these developments have altered the perspective of the Arab monarchies towards the Palestinian issue, which they conceive as a mere distraction from real immediate threats. It finally contributed to Abraham's agreement between the United Arab Emirates and Israel and then the agreement between Bahrain and Israel. While there is the considerable fuss about the agreement, it will only lead to more conflict and chaos in the MENA region from a pragmatic point of view, as has emerged in the recent developments in Libya and the Mediterranean Sea.

مقال عن مواد وثائقية جديدة عن تاريخ الكويت الحديث في مكتبة قطر الوطنية الإلكترونية

The UAE’s and Germany’s approaches towards stabilization are fundamentally different in their relation to national authorities, non-state actors, and multilateral cooperation. Nevertheless, cooperation can be furthered in specific key... more

The UAE’s and Germany’s approaches towards stabilization are fundamentally different in their relation to national authorities, non-state actors, and multilateral cooperation. Nevertheless, cooperation can be furthered in specific key areas where common interests prevail, such as police training and demining activities in Afghanistan and Yemen.

In an era of economic expansion and speedy urbanisation along with changing food preferences, the food balance equation has been disturbed that has resulted in " food gap "-a serious food security issue-even in rich gulf rich monarchies... more

In an era of economic expansion and speedy urbanisation along with changing food preferences, the food balance equation has been disturbed that has resulted in " food gap "-a serious food security issue-even in rich gulf rich monarchies like Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Although such food deficit nations manage to supplement for this gap by importing foods, it alone cannot serve to be a reliable alternative since exporting countries have their own premises and conditions to be looked after. To tackle with such worrisome event of global food crisis, the World Food Conference (1974) adopted the concept of " food security'' that mainly focuses on-food availability, food access, security and utilisation. Dealing with the challenge of catering to the Kingdom's population, estimated to exceed 38 million by 2030, this paper provides a detailed insight into its domestic agricultural production and why Saudi food supply is very vulnerable and highly dependent on the world food market. This paper begins by elaborating on the discussion with respect to location, topography, climate etc, of the study area as these natural factors that make Saudi Arabia highly vulnerable in the food market. Finally, it examines the various types of strategies adopted to improve food security emphasises on factors which increase food demand and limit food production.

Sectarian rhetoric is escalating across the Middle East region in the wake of the US invasion of Iraq, the Arab Spring moment of 2011, the recent Iran nuclear deal, as well as the Saudi-lead campaign in Yemen intended to curb Iranian... more

Sectarian rhetoric is escalating across the Middle East region in the wake of the US invasion of Iraq, the Arab Spring moment of 2011, the recent Iran nuclear deal, as well as the Saudi-lead campaign in Yemen intended to curb Iranian influence in the region. This sectarian tone has colored not just the region’s politics, but also its media, most evident in satellite television broadcasting. Hezbollah’s Al Manar
(the Beacon) is widely watched by the region’s Shi’a, many of whom live in the Gulf, and the channel often conflates religious and political content. Saudi Arabia and their Sunni allies have worked to remove overtly Shi’a channels (such as Al Manar and the Iranian Arabic-language Al Alam) from the region’s satellites, while military personalities in the region have singled out Al Manar as a threat to regional
security. These disputes over satellite broadcast content even prompted some to brand this as the new “Middle Eastern War of the Airwaves.” Spanning the issues of media, religion, and politics, this paper focuses on the predominance of sectarian politics in satellite television in the Gulf sub-region using
Al Manar as a case study. While censorship of channels and content based on rationales other than sectarianism does exist, this paper focuses on the specific impact of sectarianism and Shi’a religious and political content in satellite television within the contemporary political environment. This paper explores how Al Manar, as the most prominent Shi’a religious and political outlet in the Gulf, has been targeted by Sunni powers for censorship, and how the channel’s content, as both religious and political, is perceived as threatening by Sunni rulers in the Gulf. These
themes are explored in the context of fierce Saudi-Iranian geopolitical and regional competition that has transcended the political realm and become intricately infused in the region’s media and public sphere.

Based on a five-year urban ethnography, this article explores the subjectivities of permanent temporariness that characterize the experience of serial migrant mothers in Dubai. By going beyond approaches that select middle class... more

Based on a five-year urban ethnography, this article explores the subjectivities of permanent temporariness that characterize the experience of serial migrant mothers in Dubai. By going beyond approaches that select middle class participants based on fixed category classifications such as ethnicity or citizenship, this article uses a processual lens and sheds light on a sociologically unmarked category of migrants in the city whose experiences of mothering and work have been shaped by shifting intersectionality in the context of multinational migration. Through detailed biographies of four serial migrants, this article offers an illustration of the subjectivities of permanent temporariness and shows how they are reproduced through three mothering practices: propagating roots, reflexive selving, and normalizing movement. Examining serial migrant motherhood practices challenges methodological nationalism and illustrates how the flow and friction of multinational migration gets reconstituted into family and work lives.

On the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the Journal of Arabian Studies (JAS), this article offers the first history of the field of Gulf and Arabian Peninsula Studies (GAPS), including the origins and evolution of JAS. It begins with... more

On the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the Journal of Arabian Studies (JAS), this article offers the first history of the field of Gulf and Arabian Peninsula Studies (GAPS), including the origins and evolution of JAS. It begins with an overview of the origins and evolution of GAPS as a field of scholarship, then provides a detailed survey of the field's institutional development, which can be traced back to the region's postwar oil wealth and the large oil-funded archaeological expeditions of the 1950s-60s. This is reflected in GAPS's first societies, centres, and journals, which catered exclusively to archaeologists, historians, and Arabists. The transformation of GAPS into a global interdisciplinary field (encompassing both humanities and social sciences) began in 1969, although it remained a fringe field within Middle East Studies. The expansion of GAPS into a mainstream field in its own right began in the 2000s, reaching critical mass in the 2010s, resulting in the establishment of the Association for Gulf and Arabian Peninsula Studies (AGAPS) and the launch of JAS. In the past decade, GAPS also expanded beyond Middle East Studies to embrace Indian Ocean Studies. The article concludes with an overview of JAS's first decade: 2011-20.

The crisis in the Gulf that pits Qatar against a UAE-Saudi-led alliance is Qatar’s least problem when it comes to the 2022 World Cup.

في العقد الأخير (2001-2011) أصبحت قطر من أكثر الدول العربية نموا وتقدما، كما أصبحت الدولة الأغنى في العالم ، وقد ساهمت البيئة الاقتصادية والثقافية والاجتماعية والسياسية الايجابية والمستقرة في خلق تجربة تنموية واستثمارية متميزة على صعيد... more

The Arab world has enjoyed geostrategic importance since historical times as seen in the flourishing of trade and commerce, production of knowledge during what has been nostalgically referred to as the Islamic golden age, and most... more

The Arab world has enjoyed geostrategic importance since historical times as seen in the flourishing of trade and commerce, production of knowledge during what has been nostalgically referred to as the Islamic golden age, and most recently the discovery of energy resources critical to the stability of the international system. However, the region's particularistic and unique socio-cultural and political divisions have not lent themselves to easy analysis. Among others, one of the main difficulties in understanding the region is the space it occupies between tradition and modernity. This space has been shaped since history by the interloping forces of religion, economics and geopolitics, which in turn were sharpened and transformed by the respective colonial experiences that birthed nationalism followed by etatism as a means to legitimising the sovereign authority of the state (as dominated by a regime or leader). Thus resulted the fraught creation of the modern Arab nation-states, forced to embrace the capitalist economic system and its attendant structural and administrative requirements.
In an effort to understand this dialectical opposition between the forces of tradition and modernity, the paper focuses on the role of religious ideology and political consolidation in shaping the contours of the Saudi kingdom's state formation and sustenance. The dynamic between the intertwined assertions of the Sunni Wahhabi religious tradition on the one hand and the politically entrenched power of the Al-Saud regime on the other, underscores the intermeshed duality of the Saudi state. This means that even if the Saudi state is the instrument of modernization, it also simultaneously pursues policies to ensure its legitimacy through particular conventions, in this case, the Wahhabist religious movement in the Hanbali school of Sunni Islam. The paper will thus investigate the means and methods employed within the state towards achieving change with continuity, development with stability and reform and the regime maintenance of the Ibn Saud family.