scholarly journals FROM THEORY TO GRAND STRATEGY: ASSESSING US GOALS IN ARABIA 2001-2018

2019 ◽  
Vol 58 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Ayman Saleh Al-Barasneh

The study seeks to provide an overarching understanding to the US objectives and policies in the Gulf region at three intersecting levels; strategic interests, regional security and political reform. This study takes United States interactions with Arabia, as a case study, during the period 2001-2018 under the administrations of G.W. Bush, Barack Obama and Donald Trump. Additionally, the study attempts to generate greater understanding of the dynamics that motivating American international politics and subsequent policies toward the Arab gulf countries through examining the interactions between both systematic and domestic factors. Noticeably, US entrenched vital enduring interests with the Arab Gulf States rested, for approximately seventy years, on protecting oil flow from the region into international economy without interruption, selling arms to the Gulf Arabs and maintaining gulf regional security against any real or potential threats. Therefore, the administrations of Bush, Obama, and Trump were not different from their predecessors in their strategy of preserving gulf security through forward military presence in the region. Hence, the author employs the neorealist theory to understand US interactions with the Gulf countries. Remarkably, despite some scholar's arguments that envisaged the US policies under G.W. Bush and Donald Trump as departed drastically from US conventional policy, the study argues and concludes that the US actual policy towards Arabia reflects a traditional policy of maintaining mutual interests.

2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (7) ◽  
pp. 92 ◽  
Author(s):  
Saleem A. Salih Al-Dulaimi ◽  
Mohammad Kamal ◽  
Dalal Mahmoud Elsayed

Iran-Gulf relations are a confusing maze of complexities and contradictions. Iran’s voracious aspirations have been manifest in more than one act and place. The 1979 Revolution created a pervasive atmosphere of anxiety and fear in the Gulf region of that revolution’s ideological expansion into the Gulf states, especially those countries in which Shiites form important parts of their societies. In the Iran-Iraq war 1980, on the other hand, the Arab Gulf states supported Iraq against Iran as it was a proxy war to protect the Arab Gulf states, and Saddam Hussein, nevertheless, ended up occupying Kuwait in 1990. And then the Iranian-Gulf relations took a new turn at the time of both presidents Hashemi Rafsanjani and Mohammad Khatami, who adopted an open approach to the Gulf countries. However, those relations worsened when Ahmadinejad came to power as he started to export the revolutionary thought to the Gulf countries and extended the Iranian influence to Iraq after 2003, to Syria in the aftermath of the revolution that erupted in Syria in 2011 and to the Gulf Cooperation Council states, especially in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Bahrain. All this comes at the expense of the Gulf states, particularly Saudi Arabia, which is keen to maintain its influential role in the face of Iranian encroachment in Syria, through the support of the Syrian revolution, which seeks to overthrow Iran's ally in Damascus, Bashar al-Assad. Therefore, this study is trying to find an answer to this question: how has sectarian conflict in Syria impacted the Iranian-Gulf relations?


2016 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 68-81
Author(s):  
Dania Koleilat Khatib

This research looks at attempts by Arab Gulf states to lobby the US government effectively. It explores aspects of their lobbying behaviour in order to identify the factors that lead to success and those that lead to failure from their lobbying endeavours. In this respect, it utilizes two case studies: one in which Arab Gulf state lobbying was successful, and another in which lobbying failed. For each case study, the different elements involved in lobbying are analyzed and factors that lead to success as well as to failure are inferred. In tandem with an analysis of the strategies, or lack of them, behind Arab Gulf states’ lobbying, the research examines additional relevant factors such as the organization and activism of the US Arab American community, the strategic value of the Arab Gulf to the United States, and the negative image of Arabs in America. The research considers the obstacles facing the establishment of an effective Arab Gulf lobby in the United States, mainly the absence of a grassroots base of Arab Americans that is committed to foreign policy issues.


Author(s):  
Shatha Zaki HASSAN

The Gulf security dilemma is represented by the existence of internal and external threats that have failed to find fundamental solutions to them, and that the fact that the Gulf Cooperation Council states depend on the outside to ensure their security has become a reality after all Gulf efforts to secure a credible and self-reliant security umbrella have failed, despite the huge arsenal of weapons available. On these countries, especially Saudi Arabia. And that the United States intends to be the main actor in the details of the interactions of the Gulf security environment by building a network of different relationships that are its focus. And that the current regional security system is managed by it, and the most prominent of its mechanisms may be the strategic alliance for the Middle East, the renewal of the relationship with the allies, and a set of agreements on security arrangements and security control between the states that make up the Gulf regional system, as it entails a wide number of obligations. Keywords: Security, The Arab Gulf, The US presence, Threats, Stability.


2019 ◽  
Vol 239 ◽  
pp. 656-678
Author(s):  
Imad Mansour

AbstractThis article demonstrates the growing adaptability of Chinese foreign policy to Gulf states’ expectations around issues that implicate them directly or are relevant (such as relations with the US, and the wars in Yemen and Syria). Gulf states reacted positively because China's approach incrementally integrated local demands in its strategizing, especially by finding common ground with Gulf states despite their own differences; China has done so while not being tied to a “hegemonic idea” (i.e. it is not trying to control or define Gulf politics). China's incrementalist and non-hegemonic regional approach significantly increased Gulf states’ acceptance of its interventions, adapted to Gulf states’ expectations, and, crucially, has been altering what these states expect of major powers in general. The article concludes by proposing that unfolding Gulf politics in light of the June 2017 GCC crisis is very likely to present China with multiple opportunities to demonstrate the adroitness of its strategic choices vis-à-vis the region.


2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 38
Author(s):  
Ahmed Abdel Azim ElShiekh

<p>This paper attempts to shed light on some cultural and/or technical problems in the translation of religious terms from English into Arabic in the subtitles of movies, with particular reference to some Arab Gulf countries channels. Due to limitations of time and space, the researcher has taken two particular channels as representative, namely MBC Channel group and Dubai One. The data of the research have been collected from one film and one TV series as quite typical examples of works that may lead to serious problems in the subtitles translation with regard to religious terms. In both cases, the use of religious terms is not only obligatory but also focal. The researcher points the discrepancies in the choice of Arabic equivalents for the English religious terms in question as well as explores the possible reasons of and recommended solutions to such cultural problems in translation. The film, <em>Bruce Almighty</em>, is a light and comic treatment of the phenomenon of well-educated yet vain young men, doubting the wisdom of God Almighty. Jim Cary plays the role of the young man, while Morgan Freeman actually plays God! Hence, there is no easy way out of the necessity of tackling the problem of translating the religious terms involved. As for the TV series, <em>Supernatural</em>, the whole episode deals with God, angels, demons and Satan. It remains to be said that this paper does not claim to give decisive answers to the questions posed by the research, but only aspires to pave the way before further research on the topic and related issues.</p>


2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
El Mehdi Ait Oukhzame

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Qatar are taking the lead in the urbanization boom that is drastically transforming the spatial fabric of the Arab Gulf region. Embedded in the ambitious urban development projects launched by the UAE and Qatar is an endeavour to ‘bring the world to the Arab Gulf region’. To this end, these two states are engaged in a process of collecting and borrowing antique objects and canonized artefacts, as well as reproducing and duplicating some internationally celebrated architectural sites and spaces. While some consider these projects to be ‘part of strategies to prepare for the post-oil era’, others hold that ‘Arab Gulf States aim to strengthen or … creatively (re)construct identitarian patterns’.1 It can be argued that Arab Gulf cities should be looked at as ‘political actors’ due to ‘the functions they fulfill as spatial command posts for globalized capitalism’.2 The production and organization of social space, in this sense, cannot be seen as a ‘dead’ or passive category with no influence over various dimensions of lived experience, including thought, politics and economy. Juxtaposing the UAE’s and Qatar’s urbanization projects with the nineteenth-century phenomenon of world exhibitions and fairs, this article takes the Louvre Abu Dhabi and Villaggio Mall as case studies to investigate the modalities of knowledge generated through processes of cultural and spatial (re)production and the impact of the latter on the construction of personhood and lived experience in the Arab Gulf region.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (6) ◽  
pp. 78-108
Author(s):  
M. M. Panyuzheva

The article discusses the security relations among the United States, the EU and Russia in the context of Donald Trump's populism, the change of Western political elites and the erosion of arms treaty regimes. The purpose of the article is to analyze the current state and identify the probable scenarios of relations in the triangle of the USA – the EU – Russia. The article explores the features of the Euro-Atlantic security system from 1990’s till the mid-2000’s; the concept of Euro-Atlantic security in 2008-2009; the US, the EU and Russia relations under Barak Obama and Donald Trump. As a result of a comprehensive analysis, the author comes to the following conclusions: 1) the concept of Euro-Atlantic security is still relevant. Since the NATO based security arrangements are not stabile, security interaction among the USA, the EU and Russia is growing in importance. 2) European leaders seem to be moving towards building a new security architecture and a more balanced dialogue with Russia. The EU remains the main economic partner of the Russian Federation. 3) Trump's “transactional” approach has prompted Europeans to strengthen its defense identity and seek a compromise with Russia. 4) In a multipolar world, the Euro-Atlantic regional security is no longer closed to transatlantic ties. It is important to rethink the concept towards cooperation with non-regional countries. 5) The complex game of engagement and deterrence is likely to continue in relations between Russia and the West. The more uncertain the transatlantic relations become, the more the EU and the US need Russia.The author declares absence of conflict of interests.


Subject Future EU relations with Iran. Significance Iranian President Hassan Rouhani will make his first state visits to Europe during the autumn, to France and Italy. The EU and its member states see July's nuclear deal as opening a new chapter in relations. The EU3 -- France, Germany and the United Kingdom -- are using the subsequent political momentum to expand bilateral relations and explore new openings for engagement on Middle East security. Impacts Deeper political engagement with the EU widens Iran's partnership options beyond Russia and China. It would also allow Tehran to compete more effectively with the Gulf states for EU attention and resources. If the US Congress rejected the deal, EU sympathies would be with Iran; EU-Iran rapprochement would be hard to reverse. The success of the sanctions-plus-negotiations strategy with Iran could affect other EU sanctions policy discussions, notably on Russia.


Significance The operation, authorised by US President Donald Trump, killed Qassem Soleimani, longstanding chief of the Quds Force -- the external action wing of the Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC). Others also died, notably Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the leader of Iran-backed Iraqi militia Kata’ib Hezbollah, which had been targeted in earlier US strikes. Impacts Baghdad’s parliament will consider a bill to evict the US military presence. The confrontation with Iran will undermine efforts to combat the residual Islamic State presence. As the responses play out, oil prices are likely to rise further. The 2015 Iran nuclear deal could at last collapse. Damascus may increase its dependence on Moscow in the absence of Soleimani’s personal networks.


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