The Trouble with the Persian Gulf

2018 ◽  
pp. 10-32
Author(s):  
Mehran Kamrava
Keyword(s):  
Persian Gulf ◽  
Human Security ◽  
Balance Of Power ◽  
Dimensional Approach ◽  
Security Dilemma ◽  
Security Issues ◽  
Threat Perceptions ◽  
The Persian Gulf

Studying security in the Persian Gulf requires a multi-dimensional approach and needs to go beyond state-centered and state-exclusive approaches to security issues. In addition to military, diplomatic, and balance of power considerations, elements of human security also need to be examined, particularly perceptions of otherness that lead to sectarian sensibilities. Also important are mutual threat perceptions that foster and perpetuate security dilemma.

Troubled Waters

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mehran Kamrava
Keyword(s):  
Persian Gulf ◽  
The Self ◽  
Security Architecture ◽  
Security Threats ◽  
Security Dilemma ◽  
Security Issues ◽  
The World ◽  
The Persian Gulf ◽  
Surrounding Areas

This book examines the causes and consequences of each of those dynamics, both individually and collectively, that have made this small waterway and its surrounding areas one of the most volatile and tension-filled regions in the world. This pervasive insecurity, the book argues, is largely a product of four interrelated developments. The examination of these four central developments forms the central basis around which the book’s arguments are organized. Briefly, they include preoccupation with “conventional” security threats at the expense of pervasive, though largely intangible, non-conventional “critical security” issues; the flawed nature of the prevailing security architecture, which, ironically, perpetuates regional insecurity; the deliberate actions and policies of the regional and extra-regional actors involved in the Persian Gulf; and, the self-reinforcing nature of the region’s security dilemma.

The changed balance of power in the Persian Gulf

Asian Affairs ◽  
1973 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 255-262
Author(s):  
Denis Wright
Keyword(s):  
Persian Gulf ◽  
Balance Of Power ◽  
The Persian Gulf

Insecurity in the Persian Gulf

2018 ◽  
pp. 145-152
Author(s):  
Mehran Kamrava
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Persian Gulf ◽  
Global Economy ◽  
Human Security ◽  
Early Years ◽  
Arab Uprisings ◽  
Territorial Sovereignty ◽  
Advanced Economies ◽  
Security Challenges ◽  
The Persian Gulf

Since the early years of the twentieth century, the Persian Gulf has been viewed as a strategically vital waterway, both for the global economy in general and for the continued prosperity of advanced economies in particular. In the process, the region has become an arena for the emergence of multiple and often overlapping security challenges, many of them indigenous to the area and many imported from abroad. Up until the 2011 Arab uprisings, most of these security challenges revolved around territorial, political, and military competitions and conflicts within and between actors from the region itself and from the outside. While threats and challenges to human security were also present, they were often overshadowed by more immediate and more tangible threats to territorial sovereignty and those posed by various forms of political and military competition between state actors.

Can Conservative Arab Gulf Monarchies Endure a Fourth War in the Persian Gulf?

2007 ◽  
Vol 61 (2) ◽  
pp. 283-306 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph A. Kéchichian
Keyword(s):  
Saudi Arabia ◽  
Persian Gulf ◽  
Balance Of Power ◽  
Nuclear State ◽  
Major Powers ◽  
Security Challenges ◽  
Arab Gulf ◽  
The Persian Gulf ◽  
Regional Interests

The existing regional balance of power in the Persian Gulf is likely to shift after Iran becomes a nuclear state. Conservative Arab Gulf monarchies, which emerged relatively unscathed from previous tectonic changes, are poised to mimic the Iranian program with far-reaching consequences for all concerned. Although major powers may well tolerate a nuclearized Iran, its neighbors face daunting security challenges to protect and promote preferred regional interests, including tested alliances with key Western governments. Saudi Arabia and its smaller Arab Gulf partners will need to exercise savvy policies to prevent a fourth regional war before the first decade of the 21st century is out. They may even have to address intrinsic political and socioeconomic reforms to preserve existing privileges.

The international politics of the Persian Gulf

1976 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 216-230
Author(s):  
S. Chubin
Keyword(s):  
Persian Gulf ◽  
International Politics ◽  
International System ◽  
Relative Autonomy ◽  
Military Capability ◽  
Security Issues ◽  
Primary Focus ◽  
The Persian Gulf

International politics in the 1970s are multi-layered and characterized by fluidity and multipolarity. The decline of security issues as the primary focus in many regions is paralleled by the ascent of welfare issues and the blurring of the line between internal and external policy. These are reflected in the heightened specificity of power, between military capability and the ability to influence, in the prevalence of many simultaneous games in the international system (subsystems of activity) and the relative autonomy of the politics of the region.

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