The evolution of the Gulf Coopera-tion Council approaches to security issues after the Arab Spring

The painful consequences of political, economic and social shocks provoked by the Arab Spring forced the political elites of the Middle Eastern states to revisit traditional approaches to maintaining stability and security in the region. This inevitably aff ected the activities of the Gulf Cooperation Council, which was from the outset established in order to enhance cooperation between the countries of the region primarily in the fi eld of security. This paper attempts to identify the key milestones, factors and trends that have shaped the GCC decision-making process in the security sphere over the past 10 years since the beginning of the Arab Spring. The author shows that the Arab Awakening has encouraged the GCC member-states to deepen military-political integration, aimed at strengthening their defense capabilities, as well as their abilities to respond to external and internal challenges. The author notes that the GCC countries still view Iran as the main source of all these threats; moreover, con-sidering substantial strengthening of Iran’s infl uence in the Middle East their position has even hardened. Tehran is accused of meddling in the internal aff airs of the GCC member-states, supporting illegal Shiite groups operating on their territory, and instigating religious discord. In this context, it is quite natural that the Iran’s nuclear programme is of particular concern to the GCC. At the same time, the author emphasizes, that although the GCC member-states declare common approach towards Iran, their practical actions can vary signifi cantly. In particular, it was Qatar which opposed an excessively hard-line approach towards Iran. This fact, as well as accusations against Doha of supporting terrorist and extremist groups, led to two crises that shook the GCC in the 2010s. However, the fact that these crises have been eventually settled shows that security issues still press regional actors towards strengthening the capacities of the GCC. Especially since military threats have been compounded by a new threat — of the outbreak of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. The author concludes that this new threat, which has already incited the GCC to promote cooperation in a health sector, will also strengthen the member-states’ focus on various nonmilitary challenges including epidemiological and environmental ones.

A systematic review of STEM education research in the GCC countries: trends, gaps and barriers

Abundant research conducted in many countries has underlined the critical role of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) in developing human capital in fields important to a nation’s global competiveness and prosperity. In the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) States, recent long-term policy plans emphasize the ever-increasing need of transition to a knowledge-based economy and preparing highly qualified nationals with credentials in STEM fields to meet the current and future needs of the labor market. Yet, despite multiple educational reforms and substantial resources, national and international indicators of student performance still demonstrate insignificant improvement in GCC students’ achievement in STEM subjects. Demonstrably, the GCC youth still lack interest in STEM careers and represent low enrollment rates in STEM fields. This paper presents the results of a systematic review conducted on STEM education research in GCC countries. The review seeks to contribute to the body of the existing STEM literature, explore the factors influencing student participation in STEM, and identify the gaps in STEM education research in those countries.

Exploring the GCC Progress Towards United Nations Sustainable Development Goals

The United Nations 17 Sustainable Development Goals were agreed in 2015 by all the members' countries to be achieved by 2030. The results of several reports reveal that some countries are making good progress to achieve these goals, the progress of others is low and most likely they will not be able to achieve these goals by the deadline if serious actions are not taken. The purpose of this article is to explore the progress of the Arabian Gulf region towards these goals and identify the Goals in which the region has major challenges. A qualitative research approach using PRISMA compliance is adopted to extract the region's progress and commitment from 91 different documents. The results show that the region has major challenges in four Goals. Specific issues associated with these goals and the GCC countries plans to overcome these issues are discussed in the paper.

The Effect of Internal Corporate Governance of the Firm’s Performance and Firm Value in Five GCC Countries

A critical glance at the literature review of GCC countries, firm performance and firm value shows that the literature does not adequately consider the uniqueness of an institutional setting such as the presence of royal family members and government officials’ members on the board. Additionally, noticeable features are not accounted for in the previous literature, such as a large involvement of relatives and the presence of a female on the board of directors. It is important to understand whether these variables matter or not in this region as this then influences the firm’s performance and firm value. Thus, this study focuses on the effect of internal CG of the firm’s performance and firm value in five GCC countries. The final sample consists of 220 firms (1,096 firm-year observations) for the fiscal year 2009 to 2013. The main finding is that there is a positive significant relationship is seen between expertise factors and firm performance. The expertise factor encompasses royal family members on the board as well as hiring one of the Big 4-auditing firms. This result is in line with a theoretical claim (agency theory), the research question expectation and empirical evidence.

The Impact of the 2020 Oil Production Fluctuations on Methane Emissions over the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Countries: A Satellite Approach

The COVID-19 outbreak has significantly affected global industrial and transportation markets. Airlines, rails, and cars’ industries and their supporting energy sectors have been substantially disrupted by the pandemic. This has resulted in undermined energy demand around the world during 2019 and 2020. The organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) led by Saudi Arabia failed to persuade Russia to cutback oil supplies to deal with the loss of demand from the COVID-19 pandemic. On 8 March 2020, Saudi Arabia announced a raise in its oil production and offered a large discount on its crude oil sales. By April 2020, Saudi Arabia increased its oil production to about 12 million-oil barrels/day. This rise in oil production has not only resulted in the biggest fall in oil prices since the 1991 Gulf War but also increased methane emissions over the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) regions. Here, we report 2019 and 2020 data set of average seasonal methane-mixing ratio retrieved from TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI) on board of S5P spacecraft over 19 refineries and oil fields in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, and Bahrain. Low methane emissions were recorded over western and central Saudi Arabia compared to the eastern side of the country. In general, high methane emissions were observed in 2020 compared to 2019 around oil refineries and fields in western, central, and eastern regions of Saudi Arabia as well as over other GCC countries. This could be attributed to the oil high production associated with the oil prices fluctuation during 2020.