Insecurity in 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.

The Belligerents

This chapter examines the foreign policies of six key actors in the Persian Gulf in light of middle power rivalries and sectarian tensions. The actors include Iran and Saudi Arabia, which the chapter argues are today perhaps the Middle East’s most significant middle powers, in addition to Turkey of course. There are two other states in the area with aspirations of being middle powers, namely Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, despite their small geographic size and equally small populations.

The Trouble with 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.