The Gulf Monarchies Face the Twenty-First Century

2019 ◽  
pp. 103-132
Author(s):  
Marina ◽  
David Ottaway

The six Gulf monarchies form a distinct bloc within the Arab world. Saudi Arabia seeks to dominate it and is presently entangled in a struggle for regional hegemony with Iran. The 2011 uprisings failed to overturn any of the monarchies,which all became acutely aware of the threat that these uprisings posed, andthen chose to accelerate reforms in response. Five of the Gulf countries have tiny indigenous populations, most outnumbered by foreign workers. They also haveenormous oil or gas wealth andambitious 2030 visions for development. In addition, the five all face the double challenge of having an expansionist Iran and domineering Saudi Arabia as neighbors. Since independence from Britain in 1971, they have dedicated themselves, several with notable success, to establishing modern states, national identities and a global stature. Meanwhile, under the leadership of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the Saudi kingdom is finally undergoing radical social and economic changes in the midst of unprecedented political repression and major resistance to the Saudi bid for regional primacy from both Iran and other increasingly independent-minded Gulf monarchies.In addition, U.S.-Saudi relations, the bedrock of Saudi stability and security, are deteriorating.

Author(s):  
Madawi Al-Rasheed

The murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul by regime operatives shocked the international community and tarnished the reputation of the young, reformist Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman. This book situates the murder in the context of the duality of reform and repression and challenges common wisdom about the inevitability of the latter. The author dismisses defunct views about the inescapable ‘Oriental Despotism’ as the only pathway to genuine reform in the country. Focusing on the prince’s divisive domestic, social and economic reforms, the author argues that the current wave of unprecedented repression is a function of the prince consolidating his power outside of the traditional consensus of royal family members and influential Saudi groups. But the divisive populist nationalism bin Salman has adopted, together with repressing the diverse critical voices of religious scholars, feminists and professionals, has failed to silence a vibrant young Saudi society and an articulate and connected youth cohort. Due to its repression, Saudi Arabia is now producing asylum seekers and refugees who seek safe havens abroad to pursue their quest for freedom, equality and dignity. While the regime continues to pursue them abroad and punish their families at home, exiled activists are determined to continue the struggle against one of the most repressive monarchies in the Arab world.


Subject Saudi National Transformation Program. Significance Saudi Arabia recently launched a five-year development plan, the National Transformation Program (NTP), which sets hundreds of quantified targets and initiatives for ministries. The NTP aims to move the country beyond oil dependence and introduce a culture of transparency and accountability into government. Impacts Other Gulf countries will use the NTP to inform their own reform agendas. Its success or failure will be critical in determining the standing of the deputy crown prince. Implementing the NTP at all levels of government will create a boom in consultancy work. Greater government transparency may build pressure for democratisation.


2021 ◽  
Vol 23 (Summer 2021) ◽  
pp. 253-261
Author(s):  
Adil Shafi

This review article aims to provide broader nuances about Saudi Arabia amid the rapid developments taking place in the Middle East in general and Saudi Arabia in particular, following the rise of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS). This article begins with Salman’s Legacy, edited by Madawi al-Rasheed, and subsequently, takes up Madawi al-Rasheed’s The Son King and Ben Hubbard’s biography of MBS. It provides a brief summary of the books under review and analyzes their different themes while critically examining their prevailing shortcomings. The rise of MBS has brought about visible changes, not only in the political body of Saudi Arabia but in the wider Arab world as well. Salman’s Legacy: The Dilemmas of a New Era in Saudi Arabia, edited by Madawi al-Rasheed, seeks to highlight these challenges and provide a broad overview of Saudi Arabia, ranging from domestic affairs to foreign affairs and exploring the factors that drive the Saudi regime.


2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sa’ed H. Zyoud

Abstract Background At the global level and in the Arab world, particularly in low-income countries, COVID-19 remains a major public health issue. As demonstrated by an incredible number of COVID-19-related publications, the research science community responded rapidly. Therefore, this study was intended to assess the growing contribution of the Arab world to global research on COVID-19. Methods For the period between December 2019 and March 2021, the search for publications was conducted via the Scopus database using terms linked to COVID-19. VOSviewer 1.6.16 software was applied to generate a network map to assess hot topics in this area and determine the collaboration patterns between different countries. Furthermore, the research output of Arab countries was adjusted in relation to population size and gross domestic product (GDP). Results A total of 143,975 publications reflecting the global overall COVID-19 research output were retrieved. By restricting analysis to the publications published by the Arab countries, the research production was 6131 documents, representing 4.26% of the global research output regarding COVID-19. Of all these publications, 3990 (65.08%) were original journal articles, 980 (15.98%) were review articles, 514 (8.38%) were letters and 647 (10.55%) were others, such as editorials or notes. The highest number of COVID-19 publications was published by Saudi Arabia (n = 2186, 35.65%), followed by Egypt (n = 1281, 20.78%) and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), (n = 719, 11.73%). After standardization by population size and GDP, Saudi Arabia, UAE and Lebanon had the highest publication productivity. The collaborations were mostly with researchers from the United States (n = 968), followed by the United Kingdom (n = 661). The main research lines identified in COVID-19 from the Arab world are related to: public health and epidemiology; immunological and pharmaceutical research; signs, symptoms and clinical diagnosis; and virus detection. Conclusions A novel analysis of the latest Arab COVID-19-related studies is discussed in the current study and how these findings are connected to global production. Continuing and improving future collaboration between developing and developed countries will also help to facilitate the sharing of responsibilities for COVID-19 in research results and the implementation of policies for COVID-19.


Author(s):  
Peter H. Herlihy ◽  
Matthew L. Fahrenbruch ◽  
Taylor A. Tappan

This chapter describes the geographies of indigenous populations and their territories in Central America, past and present. A brief discussion of previous archaeological research provides a context for the region’s pre-Columbian populations and settlement distributions prior to an examination of the territorial and demographic collapse precipitated by European conquest. The chapter chronicles a twenty-first-century resurgence of indigenous populations and their territorial rights in Central America, including the emergence of geopolitical units that we call indigenous territorial jurisdictions (ITJs), the likes of which represent new strategies for accommodating indigenous land ownership and governance within the context of modern states. Archival and census research, in situ field experience, and geographic information system (GIS)-based land use and cadastral mapping inform the understanding of indigenous peoples’ past and contemporary demographic trends, settlement patterns, and territorial challenges.


Author(s):  
Hanan bint Ahmed bin Mishni al-Zahrani

The aim of this study is to recognize the flexible education system in primary education stages and preschools in the Arab world. Along with the justifications for acknowledging such a system، including its contributions in solving the issues of the school education system and its application methods. This study is based on both descriptive and analytical approaches to analyses the findings by identifying the justifications for acknowledging this system، together with previous studies and successful examples، and make comparison between the traditional education and the flexible education system and this study was the tool in observation and analysis the stories،pictures and videos of learning experiment for families who adopt flexible education system and apply that in two public education schools and twenty flexible education systems. This study formed from observation and analysis eight points : the objectives of the educational process، the teacher، the curriculum، student needs، teaching strategies، educational environment and its preparation،educational speed and evaluation .And determination the advantages and disadvantages to everyone from these eight points . The results of the study according to the eight points above show that the flexible education system in primary education stages and preschools is outperform the traditional education system . They also show the reasons and justifications to experiment the flexible education system and its application methods . According to the result the study confirm to apply the flexible education system in primary stages and preschools in Saudi Arabia to keep up with modern educational systems، and for its benefits to society as a whole .  


2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-6
Author(s):  
Syed Rashid Ali

This paper examines the pattern, sources and growth of remittances to Pakistan. It analyses the growing trend of remittances and share of remittances to GDP over the period 1972-2014. We use the kinked exponential model (Boyce, 1986, 1987) to estimates the growing trend of remittances in Pakistan. The results show that remittances received by Pakistan have three distinct growth phases over the study period – Phase I (1973 – 1983), Phase II (1984 – 2000) and Phase III (2001 – 2014). The remittances received by Pakistan have positive growth during the first and the third period while the second period shows negative growth. Before globalization, the UK was the major source of remittances to Pakistan but after globalization, the sources of remittances to Pakistan have been cantered on Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and other Gulf countries.


2020 ◽  
pp. 1428-1441
Author(s):  
Fakhri Issaoui ◽  
Toumi Hassen ◽  
Touili Wassim

The strategic goal of this paper is to study the effects of the prevention policies against money laundering on growth in the gulf countries (Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, UAE and Oman) from 1980 to 2014. Thus, the logistic regression (logit model) had given three fundamental results. The first had shown that the main policies in matter of fight against money laundering (anti money laundering law AMLL, suspicious transaction reporting STR, the criminalizing of terrorist financing CTF) have had positive effects on the increasing of probabilities to realize more growth. The second is that the said policies have had positive effects on the increasing of the degree of openness of the whole sample. The third is that the variable (proximity) had a positive and significant effect on anti-money laundering policies.


Author(s):  
Seyedmohammad Seyedi Asl ◽  
Hazar Leylanoğlu ◽  
Ataollah Bahremani ◽  
Shalaleh Zabardastalamdari

In this study, using the descriptive-analytical method, we discuss the main factors in the formation of the Yemen crisis, as well as the attitudes of the two Arab states and of the two neighboring countries, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates, in the Yemen crisis. It is concluded that this crisis stems not only from the role of local actors, but also from the role of regional and global actors, who played a decisive role in shaping and exacerbating the Yemen crisis. Regional players in the post-2015 crisis include the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, which showed contradictory behavior. Saudi Arabia's targets in its attack on Yemen have a greater military and security dimension. The political and economic objectives of the United Arab Emirates, which is Riyadh's most important ally in this war, have been at a different level from those of Saudi Arabia. This can be seen in Abu Dubai Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed's aspirations to expand his country's influence, to become a major player in the region.


Author(s):  
Ghazi Saad A Elawi ◽  
Mohammed Algahtany ◽  
Dean Kashiwagi ◽  
Kenneth Sullivan

Delays are a major cause for concern in the construction industry in Saudi Arabia. This paper identifies the main causes of delay in infrastructure projects in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, and compares these with projects around the country and other Gulf countries. Data was obtained from 49 infrastructure projects undertaken by the owner and were analyzed quantitatively to understand the causes and severity of delay. 10 risk factors were identified and were grouped into four categories. Average delay in infrastructure projects in Mecca was found to be 39% of the estimated projects schedules. The most severe cause of delay was found to be the land acquisition factor. This highlights the critical land ownership and acquisition issues that are prevailing in the city. Additionally, other factors that contribute to delay include contractors’ lack of expertise, haphazard underground utilities (line services), and re-designing. It is concluded that the majority of project delays were caused from the owner’s side as compared to contractors, consultants, and other project’s stakeholders. This finding matched with the research findings of the Gulf Countries Construction (GCC) industry’s literature. This study fills an important practice and research gap for improving the efficiency in delivering infrastructure projects in the holy city of Mecca and Gulf countries at large.


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