Download or read book Stability and Transition in Rentier States of the Arab Gulf written by Jennifer Susanne Hunt and published by . This book was released on 2014 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Political Economy of Arab Gulf States written by and published by . This book was released on with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Oil and the political economy in the Middle East written by Martin Beck and published by Manchester University Press. This book was released on 2021-08-17 with total page 204 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The downhill slide in the global price of crude oil, which started mid-2014, had major repercussions across the Middle East for net oil exporters, as well as importers closely connected to the oil-producing countries from the Gulf. Following the Arab uprisings of 2010 and 2011, the oil price decline represented a second major shock for the region in the early twenty-first century – one that has continued to impose constraints, but also provided opportunities. Offering the first comprehensive analysis of the Middle Eastern political economy in response to the 2014 oil price decline, this book connects oil market dynamics with an understanding of socio-political changes. Inspired by rentierism, the contributors present original studies on Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. The studies reveal a large diversity of country-specific policy adjustment strategies: from the migrant workers in the Arab Gulf, who lost out in the post-2014 period but were incapable of repelling burdensome adjustment policies, to Egypt, Jordan, and Lebanon, who have never been able to fulfil the expectation that they could benefit from the 2014 oil price decline. With timely contributions on the COVID-19-induced oil price crash in 2020, this collection signifies that rentierism still prevails with regard to both empirical dynamics in the Middle East and academic discussions on its political economy.
Download or read book Political Change in the Arab Gulf States written by Mary Ann Tétreault and published by Lynne Rienner Pub. This book was released on 2011 with total page 369 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Explores the politics influencing the volatile situation in the Middle East, as well as specific measures devised by regimes in power to adjust to the challenges of the current environment.
Download or read book Slick Operators written by Jessie Moritz and published by . This book was released on 2017 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Rentier state theory (RST) remains the dominant literature on state-society relations in the Arab States of the Gulf, yet by focusing on case studies of three ostensibly 'rentier' states, Qatar, Bahrain, and Oman, and their experience during the post-2011 period, this dissertation challenges assumptions of rent-induced political stagnation, state autonomy, and poor economic development prevalent in RST. The study is based on seven months field research in the Gulf region and among expatriate communities residing in the United Kingdom conducted between June 2013 and February 2014, including over 130 personal interviews with members of royal families, elected and appointed representatives, development advisors, youth entrepreneurs, and demonstrators involved in protests since 2011, as well as other data gathering activities. By examining informal and formal opposition in Qatar, Bahrain, and Oman since 2011, this thesis disputes RST's assertion that distributions of wealth stymie political dissent. Participants in street demonstrations generally did not refer to material interests when justifying their opposition, but instead emphasised dissatisfaction with political rights, desire to hold the state accountable, or - in Qatar and Oman where society did not form 'opposition' so much as 'reform-oriented movements' - a sense that reform was in the national interest. Even loyalists justified their support for the state not by reference to rent distributions, but rather a sense of responsiveness and, in most cases, a shared identity with the ruling elite. The dissertation also disputes RST's typical depiction of the state as a coherent actor, analysing political pressures emanating from reform-oriented groups within the state. As rent distributions were a poor determinant of political activism, the thesis identifies several dynamics that overpowered rent-based incentives to remain politically inactive. While RST depicts states as effectively coopting society through rent distributions, the dissertation draws from an in-depth examination of Omani economic development between 1990 and 2014 to reveal that the state's rent-driven economic development strategy had unintentionally contributed to a sense of inequality among nationals and the emergence of popular dissatisfaction, highlighting the importance of examining rent-based cooptation strategies at a sub-national level rather than relying on assumptions of cooptation at the national level. In a similar critique, the research also investigates the international dimensions of rentierism, finding that rentier states were far less insulated than typically assumed, examining three key cases where international networks or political pressures have impacted the state-society relationship. Societies, then, were far from quiescent, and this research examines the networks and dynamics that have allowed citizens to challenge state authority. The dissertation argues that rentierism remains critical to understanding state-society relations in the Gulf states during the post-2011 period, but it is not necessarily dominant, and that several assumed outcomes of oil and gas wealth require revision and refinement. Ultimately, the dissertation depicts oil and gas-rich states of the Arab Gulf as having exceptional capacity to respond to the material demands of their citizenry, but also remaining responsive to a politically active society, even where formal political liberalisation has been limited, or even regressed since 2011.
Download or read book When Can Oil Economies Be Deemed Sustainable written by Giacomo Luciani and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2020-09-30 with total page 365 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This open access book questions the stereotype depicting all Gulf (GCC) economies as not sustainable, and starts a critical discussion of what these economies and polities should do to guarantee themselves a relatively stable future. Volatile international oil markets and the acceleration of the energy transition has challenged the notion that oil revenues are sufficient to sustain oil economies in the near to medium term. But what is the meaning of economic sustainability? The book discusses the multiple dimensions of the concept: economic diversification, continuing value of resources, taxation and fiscal development, labor market sustainability, sustainable income distribution, environmental sustainability, political order (democracy or authoritarianism) and sustainability, regional integration. The overarching message in this book is that we should move on from the simplistic branding of the Gulf economies as unsustainable and tackle the details of which adaptations they might need to undertake.
Download or read book Combining Economic and Political Development written by Giacomo Luciani and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2017-01-23 with total page 253 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since 2011, democratic transitions in the Middle East and North Africa have mostly failed to consolidate and have been hindered by the difficult economic heritage of previous authoritarian governments. Yet newly established democratic governments must deliver on the expectations of their people, especially the poorer strata, otherwise disillusionment may open the door to restoration of authoritarian rule. Can democracy succeed? Various ideas for economic policies that may help consolidate the early democratisation process are proposed in this volume, while major obstacles on the way to democratic success are also highlighted. Contributors include: Alissa Amico, Laura El-Katiri, Philippe Fargues, Bassam Fattouh, Steffen Hertog, Giacomo Luciani, Samir Makdisi, Adeel Malik, Bassem Snaije, Robert Springborg, and Eckart Woertz.
Download or read book The Geopolitics of the Global Energy Transition written by Manfred Hafner and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2020-06-09 with total page 398 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The world is currently undergoing an historic energy transition, driven by increasingly stringent decarbonisation policies and rapid advances in low-carbon technologies. The large-scale shift to low-carbon energy is disrupting the global energy system, impacting whole economies, and changing the political dynamics within and between countries. This open access book, written by leading energy scholars, examines the economic and geopolitical implications of the global energy transition, from both regional and thematic perspectives. The first part of the book addresses the geopolitical implications in the world’s main energy-producing and energy-consuming regions, while the second presents in-depth case studies on selected issues, ranging from the geopolitics of renewable energy, to the mineral foundations of the global energy transformation, to governance issues in connection with the changing global energy order. Given its scope, the book will appeal to researchers in energy, climate change and international relations, as well as to professionals working in the energy industry.
Download or read book Qatar and the Arab Spring written by Kristian Ulrichsen and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2014 with total page 244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Qatar and the Arab Spring offers a frank examination of Qatar's startling rise to regional and international prominence, describing how its distinctive policy stance toward the Arab Spring emerged. In only a decade, Qatari policy-makers - led by the Emir, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani, and his prime minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim Al-Thani - catapulted Qatar from a sleepy backwater to a regional power with truly international reach. In addition to pursuing an aggressive state-branding strategy with its successful bid for the 2022 FIFA World Cup, Qatar forged a reputation for diplomatic mediation that combined intensely personalized engagement with financial backing and favorable media coverage through the Al-Jazeera. These factors converged in early 2011 with the outbreak of the Arab Spring revolts in North Africa, Syria, and Yemen, which Qatari leaders saw as an opportunity to seal their regional and international influence, rather than as a challenge to their authority, and this guided their support of the rebellions against the Gaddafi and Assad regimes in Libya and Syria. From the high watermark of Qatari influence after the toppling of Gaddafi in 2011, that rapidly gave way to policy overreach in Syria in 2012, Coates Ulrichsen analyses Qatari ambition and capabilities as the tiny emirate sought to shape the transitions in the Arab world.
Download or read book The Middle East in Transition written by Nils A. Butenschøn and published by Edward Elgar Publishing. This book was released on with total page 369 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The violent transitions that have dominated developments since the Arab Uprisings demonstrate deep-seated divisions in the conceptions of state authority and citizen rights and responsibilities. Analysing the Middle East through the lens of the ‘citizenship approach’, this book argues that the current diversity of crisis in the region can be ascribed primarily to the crisis in the relations between state and citizen. The volume includes theoretical discussions and case studies, and covers both Arab and non-Arab countries.
Download or read book Capitalism and Class in the Gulf Arab States written by Adam Hanieh and published by Springer. This book was released on 2016-04-30 with total page 447 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book analyzes the recent development of Gulf capitalism through to the aftermath of the 2008 economic crisis. Situating the Gulf within the evolution of capitalism at a global scale, it presents a novel theoretical interpretation of this important region of the Middle East political economy.
Download or read book The Rentier State written by Hazem Beblawi and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2015-07-16 with total page 196 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume, first published in 1987, is devoted to a discussion of interrelations of the economic base with the cultural, social and political structures, and of its impact on the state. The ‘rentier states’ of the Middle East, which derive a substantial part of their revenue from foreign sources in the form of rent, largely oil revenues, face the same basic problem, the challenge of transforming their economies to give increased strength to productive activity and rely on its progress to increase state revenue from domestic sources. This book, Volume Two in the Nation, State and Integration in the Arab World research project carried out by the Istituto Affari Internazionali, examine the issue of the modernization of rentier states’ public finance, which may well entail important modifications in their domestic politics.
Download or read book The Rising Gulf written by Valeria Talbot (a cura di) and published by Edizioni Epoké. This book was released on 2016-09-09 with total page 118 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Over the last years the Gulf monarchies emerged as assertive players both in the MENA region and in the global context. Relying on their huge energy reserves and financial assets, these states acquired increasing international leverage. On the one hand, the oil monarchies moved eastwards exploiting the opportunity provided by emerging Asian markets to diversify their energy relations and economic interests. On the other, they were prompted by the 2011 uprisings to modify their traditional stance in favour of a more proactive approach that dramatically altered their influence in the region. However, Gulf activism comes at a time when the monarchies are facing important internal and external challenges. In this complex puzzle, the report aims to assess to what extent the rising Gulf monarchies are able to play as key actors at both the regional and the international levels. Are Gulf monarchies adopting sustainable domestic policies in the long-term? How have they extended their influence in the MENA region? How are they reshaping their international relations? How do they act in the world energy market? What are the implications of the Gulf’s new assertiveness for the EU states?
Download or read book Group Conflict and Political Mobilization in Bahrain and the Arab Gulf written by Justin Gengler and published by Indiana University Press. This book was released on 2015-06-08 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Invaluable to anyone wanting a fuller understanding of the economic, political, and religious tensions within Bahrain.” —The Sociological Imagination The oil-producing states of the Arab Gulf are said to sink or swim on their capacity for political appeasement through economic redistribution. Yet, during the popular uprisings of the Arab Spring, in Bahrain and all across the Arab Gulf, ordinary citizens showed an unexpected enthusiasm for political protest directed against governments widely assumed to have co-opted their support with oil revenues. Justin Gengler draws on the first-ever mass political survey in Bahrain to demonstrate that neither is the state willing to offer all citizens the same bargain, nor are all citizens willing to accept it. Instead, shared social and religious identities offer a viable basis for mass political coordination. Challenging the prevailing rentier interpretation of political life in the Gulf states, Gengler offers new empirical evidence and a new conceptual framework for understanding the attitudes of ordinary citizens.
Download or read book The Future Security Environment in the Middle East written by Nora Bensahel and published by Rand Corporation. This book was released on 2004-03-12 with total page 369 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This report identifies several important trends that are shaping regional security. It examines traditional security concerns, such as energy security and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, as well as newer challenges posed by political reform, economic reform, civil-military relations, leadership change, and the information revolution. The report concludes by identifying the implications of these trends for U.S. foreign policy.
Download or read book Bridging the Gulf EU GCC Relations at a Crossroads written by Silvia Colombo and published by Edizioni Nuova Cultura. This book was released on 2014-05-27 with total page 358 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Relations between the European Union (EU) and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) are at a crossroads. After the derailment of the negotiations for the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) in 2008, the cooperation between the two regional blocs has remained low-key in a number of different areas, while the unprecedented changes that have taken place in North Africa and the Middle East, the common neighbourhood of the EU and the GCC, have not led to a renewed, structured cooperation on foreign and security policy issues. This volume addresses the shortcomings and potential of EU-GCC relations by taking stock of their past evolution and by advancing policy recommendations as to how to revamp this strategic cooperation. In this light, it highlights the areas where greater room for manoeuvre exists in order to enhance EU-GCC relations, discusses the instruments available and sheds light on the features of the regional and international context that are likely to significantly influence the new phase in the mutual relation between the two blocs. The book is the result of the research conducted in the framework of the project ‘Sharaka – Enhancing Understanding and Cooperation in EU-GCC Relations’ co-funded by the European Commission.
Download or read book Gulf Cooperation Council GCC Economic Prospects and Policy Challenges for the GCC Countries written by International Monetary Fund and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 2012-10-16 with total page 23 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The already sluggish global recovery has suffered new setbacks and uncertainty weighs heavily on prospects. The euro area crisis intensified in the first half of 2012 and growth has slowed across the globe, reflecting financial market tensions, extensive fiscal tightening in many countries, and high uncertainty about medium-term prospects. Activity is forecast to remain tepid and bumpy, with a further escalation of the euro-area crisis or a failure to avoid the “fiscal cliff” in the United States entailing significant downside risk.
