Qatar, the UAE and Kuwait: Evaluating their Role in Regional Organizations and the Prospects For a Small State Security Cooperation Framework

Year 2021, Volume: 3 Issue: 2, 1 - 23, 01.05.2021

Konstantinos Zarras

Abstract

Throughout the decade of the Arab Uprisings, the security environment of the broader Middle East area had altered in an essential way. The revolutionary wave that spread around North Africa and the Middle East, and the vigorous counter-revolutionary response it provoked, fuelled revolts, civil wars, and extra-regional interventions by global powers. As a result, the small Gulf states had to navigate through uncharted waters. IR scholarship has extensively explored the challenges and opportunities for small states within the changing international system. In particular, it is highlighted that membership in international organizations -regional and global- can increase their capacity for influence. Meanwhile, attention has recently been directed to the advantages that small states can derive from the establishment of security cooperation networks. This article’s central aim is to provide an overview of the state of play regarding the policies of three small states in the Gulf: Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, and Kuwait. What are the obstacles that prevent them from deriving the most benefit from their participation in the regional organizations of the League of the Arab States and the Gulf Cooperation Council? For what reasons the prospect for the formation of a small Gulf states’ security network is regarded as a distant possibility, despite the substantial gains that can be obtained for the three monarchies under consideration?

Keywords

International Security, Small States, Regional Organizations, Gulf politics, Middle Eastern Affairs

Qatar, the UAE and Kuwait: Evaluating their Role in Regional Organizations and the Prospects for a Small State Security Cooperation Framework

Abstract

Throughout the decade of the Arab Uprisings, the security environment of the broader Middle East area had altered in an essential way. The revolutionary wave that spread around North Africa and the Middle East, and the vigorous counter-revolutionary response it provoked, fuelled revolts, civil wars, and extra-regional interventions by global powers. As a result, the small Gulf states had to navigate through uncharted waters. IR scholarship has extensively explored the challenges and opportunities for small states within the changing international system. In particular, it is highlighted that membership in international organizations -regional and global- can increase their capacity for influence. Meanwhile, attention has recently been directed to the advantages that small states can derive from the establishment of security cooperation networks. This article’s central aim is to provide an overview of the state of play regarding the policies of three small states in the Gulf: Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, and Kuwait. What are the obstacles that prevent them from deriving the most benefit from their participation in the regional organizations of the League of the Arab States and the Gulf Cooperation Council? For what reasons the prospect for the formation of a small Gulf states’ security network is regarded as a distant possibility, despite the substantial gains that can be obtained for the three monarchies under consideration?

Keywords

Gulf Security, Small States Studies, International Organizations, Regional Studies, Middle Eastern Affairs

References

• Aarts, Paul. “The Middle East: a region without regionalism or the end of exceptionalism?”, Third World Quarterly, Vol.20, 5 (1999): 911–925.
• Alajmi, Abdulhadi. “The Gulf Crisis: An Insight Into Kuwait’s Mediation Efforts”, International Relations and Diplomacy, Vol.6, N.10 (2018): 537-548.
• Al Mazrouei, Noura. “The Revival of the UAE-Saudi Arabia Border Dispute in the 21st Century”. Journal of Borderlands Studies, 32:2 (2017): 157-172.
• Almezaini, Khalid and Jean-Marc Rickli eds. The Small Gulf States: Foreign and Security Policies before and after the Arab Spring. London: Routledge, 2016.
• Archer, Clive, Alyson Bailes and Anders Wivel eds. Small states and international security: Europe and beyond. New York: Routledge, 2016.
• Brynen, Rex. “Palestine and the Arab State System: Permeability, State Consolidation and the Intifada”, Canadian Journal of Political Science/ Revue canadienne de science politique, Vol.24, No 3 (1991):595-621.
• Dakhlallah, Farah. “The League of Arab States and Regional Security: Towards an Arab Security Community?, British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, Vol.39, Iss.3 (2012): 393-412.
• Engelbrekt, Kjell. High-Table Diplomacy, The Reshaping of International Security Institutions. Washington DC: Georgetown University Press, 2016.
• Fox, Baker. The power of small states: diplomacy in World War II. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1959.
• Friedman, Brandon. “Battle for Bahrain, What one Uprising Meant for the Gulf States and Iran. World Affairs. Vol.174, N.6, (2012): 74-84.
• Frisch, Hillel. “Why Monarchies Persist: Balancing between Internal and External Vulnerability”. Review of International Studies. 37.1 (2011): 167–84.
• Gause, Gregory. “The Foreign Policy of Saudi Arabia”, in Raymond Hinnebusch, Anoushiravan Ehteshami eds. The Foreign Policies of Middle East States. CO: Lynne Rienner, 2014.
• Gause, Gregory. “Threats and Threat Perception in the Persian Gulf Region”. Middle East Policy, 14, 2, (2007):119-124.
• Henderson, Simon. “The Persian Gulf's 'Occupied Territory': The Three-Island Dispute”, Policywatch 1402, The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, 8 September 2008.
• Herb, Michael. “The Origins of Kuwait’s National Assembly”, LSE Kuwait Programme Paper Series, No. 38, March 2016.
• Hey, Jeanne ed. Small States in World Politics: Explaining Foreign Policy Behavior. Boulder: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2003.
• Ibish, Hussein. The UAE’s Evolving National Security Strategy, The Arab Gulf States Institute, Washington DC, 2017. Ingebritsen, Christine, Iver Neumann, Sieglinde Gstöhl and Jessica Beyer eds. Small States in International Relations. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2006.
• Kerr, Malcolm The Arab Cold War 1958–1964. A Study of Ideology in Politics. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1965.
• Koch, Christian. “The GCC as a Regional Security Organization,” KAS International Reports (2010).
• Kouskouvelis, Ilias. “‘Smart’ Leadership in a Small State: The Case of Cyprus”, in Spyridon Litsas, Aristotelis Tziampiris eds. The Eastern Mediterranean in Transition: Multipolarity, Power and Politics. London: Ashgate Publishing, 2015.
• Miller, Benjamin. “When and How Regions Become Peaceful: Potential Theoretical Pathways to Peace”. International Studies Review. 7 (2005): 229-267.
• Miller, Rory and Harry Verhoeven. “Overcoming smallness: Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and strategic realignment in the Gulf”. International Politics, Vol.57, (2020): 1–20.
• Onley, James. “Britain and the Gulf Sheikhdoms, 1820-1971: The Politics of Protection”. Occasional Paper No.4, Georgetown School of Foreign Service in Qatar, (2009).
• Panke, Diana. Small States in the European Union: Coping with Structural Disadvantages. Farnham, Surrey: Ashgate, 2010.
• Panke, Diana. “Dwarfs in international negotiations: how small states make their voices heard”. Cambridge Review of International Affairs, Vol 25, Iss. 3, (2012): 313-328.
• Pedi, Revecca and Ilias Kouskouvelis. “Cyprus in the Eastern Mediterranean: A Small State Seeking for Status”, in Spyridon N. Litsas, Aristotelis Tziampiris eds., The New Eastern Mediterranean. Cham: Springer International, 2019.
• Pedi, Revecca and Katerina Sarri. “From the ‘Small but Smart State’ to the ‘Small and Entrepreneurial State’: introducing a framework for Effective Small State Strategies within the EU and Beyond”. Baltic Journal of European Studies. Vol. 9, N.1,26, (2019): 3-19.
• Pinfari, Marco. “Nothing but failure? The Arab League and the Gulf Cooperation Council as Mediators in Middle Eastern Conflicts”, Working Paper no. 45, Crisis States Working Papers Series no 2, LSE, (2009).
• Quero, Jordi and Andrea Dessì. “Unpredictability in US foreign policy and the regional order in the Middle East: reacting vis-à-vis a volatile external security-provider”, British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, (2019).
• Rahman, Habibur. The Making of the Gulf War: Origins of Kuwait’s Long-Standing Territorial Dispute with Iraq. Berkshire: Ithaca Press, 1997.
• Rickli, Jean-Marc. “New Alliances Dynamics in the Gulf and their Impact on the Small GCC States”. Third World Thematics: A TWQ Journal. Vol.1, Iss.1, (2006):132-150.
• Ripsman, Norrin, Jeffrey Taliaferro and Steven Lobell. Neoclassical Realist Theory of International Politics. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016.
• Roberts David B., “Qatar and the UAE: Exploring Divergent Responses to the Arab Spring”, The Middle East Journal, Vol. 71, N.4, (2017): 544-562.
• Rubin, Aviad and Ehud Eiran. “Regional maritime security in the eastern Mediterranean: expectations and reality”. International Affairs, Vol. 95, Isssue 5, (2019): 979-997.
• Smith, Simon. “Britain’s Decision to Withdraw from the Persian Gulf: A Pattern Not a Puzzle”. The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, Vol.44, Iss.2 (2016): 328-351.
• Steinmetz, Robert and Anders Wivel eds. Small States in Europe: Challenges and Opportunities. Farnham:Ashgate, 2010.
• Steinsson, Sverrir and Baldur Thorhallsson. “Small State Foreign Policy”, in The Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Politics Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017.
• Thorhallsson, Baldur. “Studying small states: A review”. Small States & Territories Vol. 1, No. 1, (2018):17-34.
• Thorhallsson, Baldur. The role of small states in the European Union. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2000.
• Thorhallsson, Baldur. “Studying Small States: A Review”, Small States and Territories. Vol.1, N.1, (2018): 17.
• Thorhallsson, Baldur. “The Size of States in the European Union, Theoretical and Conceptual Perspectives”. European Integration, Vol. 28, No. 1, 2006: 7-31.
• Thorhallsson, Baldur and Anders Wivel. “Small States in the European Union: What Do We Know and What Would We Like to Know?”, Cambridge Review of International Affairs, 19, 4 (2006): 651-668.
• Ulrichsen, Kristian Coates. Qatar and the Gulf Crisis. A Study of Resilience. Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2020.
• Ulrichsen, Kristian Coates. Insecure Gulf: The End of Certainty and the Transition to the Post-Oil Era. Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2015.
• Wivel, Anders and Matthew Crandall. “Punching above their weight, but why? Explaining Denmark and Estonia in the transatlantic relationship”. Journal of Transatlantic Studies 17, (2019): 392-419.