Download or read book State society Relations in the Arab Gulf States written by Mazhar Al-Zoʻby and published by . This book was released on 2014 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines the strategies and dynamics through which state-society relations in the Arab Gulf region have been cultivated, and explores the alternative political, social, economic and popular changes that threaten these relations. The work focuses on understanding how state sovereignty has been shifting to accommodate internal social, cultural, and intellectual forces and how these forces have managed to balance social and political powers in order to function within and co-exist alongside the state. Case-studies give specific examples of how social forces, popular movements, social media and youth culture are actively influencing cultural attitudes and practices as well as political actions.
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 State Society and Economy in Saudi Arabia RLE Saudi Arabia written by Tim Niblock and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2015-02-20 with total page 312 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Saudi Arabia is one of the most important countries in the modern world. Not only does it possess some 25 per cent of the world’s proven oil reserves, it also plays a crucial role in the wider Gulf region where over 50 per cent of proven reserves are located. Developments in Saudi Arabia will inevitably affect the economic well-being of the Western industrialised world, Japan and much of the Third World. At the same time, Saudi Arabia is ruled in a traditional way by an all-powerful king and royal family, and is one of the key countries of Islam, the Holy City of Mecca being within the country’s boundaries. The inroad of modern Western forces into this traditional Islamic society is underlined by the fact that may key posts are filled with imported Western workers. This book, first published in 1982, containing contributions by the world’s leading Middle Eastern experts, provides a comprehensive overview of important social, political and economic developments in Saudi Arabia. The opening chapters consider the formation of the Saudi State, and the bulk of the book surveys key themes such as political opposition, the oil industry, energy policy, banking, external relations and the future direction of development.
Download or read book Over stating the Arab State written by Nazih N. Ayubi and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 1996-12-31 with total page 529 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The author's objective within this book is to place the Arab world within a theoretical and comparative framework that avoids both orientalist and fundamentalist insistence on the utter peculiarity and uniqueness of the region. The book focuses in detail on eight Arab countries.
Download or read book The Arab Gulf States written by Abdulkhaleq Abdulla and published by Emirates Center for Strategic Studies and Research. This book was released on 2000-08-10 with total page 12 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The six Arab Gulf States (AGS) comprising Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are universally recognized as a distinct group of states. These states have developed their own distinct socio-economic features, regional concerns and political priorities that are relatively independent of the rest of the Arab World. More important, these states have acquired over the last 30 years, a unique international prominence. However, despite their global significance, the AGS are either little understood or even grossly misunderstood by the outside world.The central purpose of this analysis is to provide answers to some key questions such as: Why is it important to study the AGS? How do we best approach and analyze them? What are their unique characteristics? How did they acquire such an imposing strategic value? The author discusses among other aspects, three compelling reasons and three different approaches to assess the AGS. The study examines the changing national, regional and international developments affecting these states and the rationale behind their strategic and economic importance, concluding that the conventional oil-dominated approaches to the AGS do not adequately reflect their individual complexities and current realities.
Download or read book Society and State in the Gulf and Arab Peninsula RLE The Arab Nation written by Khaldoun Nassan Al-Naqeeb and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2012-08-21 with total page 234 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is both a history and contemporary analysis. Charting the main turnpoints as the growth of cities, trade routes, the petroleum industry and growth of the authoritarian state the author argues that central bureaucratic control is limiting growth. He describes the state as governed by the interests of the ruling family who continue to block opportunities for social mobility. He is also critical of the lack of a broad, productive base in the economy, the export of capital and its effect on investment in local resources, as well as the technological dependence on the West.
Download or read book Inside the Arab State written by Mehran Kamrava and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2018-08-15 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The 2011 Arab uprisings and their subsequent aftermath have thrown into question some of our long-held assumptions about the foundational aspects of the Arab state. While the regional and international consequences of the uprisings continue to unfold with great unpredictability, their ramifications for the internal lives of the states in which they unfolded are just as dramatic and consequential. States historically viewed as models of strength and stability have been shaken to their foundations. Borders thought impenetrable have collapsed; sovereignty and territoriality have been in flux. This book examines some of the central questions facing observers and scholars of the Middle East concerning the nature of power and politics before and after 2011 in the Arab world. The focus of the book revolves around the very nature of politics and the exercise of power in the Arab world, conceptions of the state, its functions and institutions, its sources of legitimacy, and basic notions underlying it such as sovereignty and nationalism. Inside the Arab State adopts a multi-disciplinary approach, examining a broad range of political, economic, and social variables. It begins with an examination of politics, and more specifically political institutions, in the Arab world from the 1950s on, tracing the travail of states, and the wounds they inflicted on society and on themselves along the way, until the eruption of the 2011 uprisings. The uprisings, the states' responses to them, and efforts by political leaders to carve out for themselves means of legitimacy are also discussed, as are the reasons for the emergence and rise of Daesh and the Islamic State. Power, I argue, and increasingly narrow conceptions of it in terms of submission and conformity, remains at the heart of Arab politics, popular protests and yearnings for change notwithstanding. Much has changed in the Arab world over the last several decades. But even more has stayed the same.
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 Turkey and Qatar in the Tangled Geopolitics of the Middle East written by Birol Başkan and published by Springer. This book was released on 2016-05-11 with total page 153 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book narrates how Turkey and Qatar have come to forge a mutually special relationship. The book argues that throughout the 2000s Turkey and Qatar had pursued similar foreign policies and aligned their positions on many critical and controversial issues. By doing so, however, they increasingly isolated themselves in the Middle East as states challenging the status quo. The claim made here is that it is this isolation—which became acute in the summer of 2013—that led the two countries to forge much stronger relations.
Download or read book Society and State in the Gulf and Arab Peninsula written by Khaldūn Ḥasan Naqīb and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 1990 with total page 206 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Oil Monarchies written by F. Gregory Gause and published by Council on Foreign Relations. This book was released on 1994 with total page 262 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This timely book demystifies the politics of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, and Oman, and focuses on the new pressures that have emerged since the Gulf War. Gause illuminates the foreign policy tightrope these states walk in the Middle East: self-defense is problematic, regional pressures translate directly into the domestic arena, and relations with the United States cause as well as solve many problems. Gause examines the interplay of Islamic fundamentalism, tribalism, and, most importantly, oil wealth that has determined the power structure of the Gulf monarchies. He shows what influences really drive politics in the Middle East as well as how U.S. foreign policy must respond to them in order to forge more meaningful ties with each country and preserve the stability of a fragile region that is vital to U.S. interests.
Download or read book Gulf Cooperation Council Culture and Identities in the New Millennium written by Magdalena Karolak and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2020-03-10 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The book analyzes recent changes to the identities and cultures of the GCC countries. These important transformations have gone largely unnoticed due to the fast-paced changes in the region that affect all aspects of society. The volume unpacks these transformations by looking from a holistic perspective at the intersections of language, arts, education, political culture, city, regional alliances and transnational identities. It offers selected case studies based on original research carried out in the region. Chapter 7, ‘Identity Lost & Found: Architecture and Identity Formation in Kuwait and the Gulf’, of this book is available open access under a CC BY 4.0 license at link.springer.com
Download or read book The Foreign Policy of Smaller Gulf States written by Máté Szalai and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2021-09-27 with total page 185 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book studies how smaller Gulf states managed to increase their influence in the Middle East, oftentimes capitalising on their smallness as a foreign policy tool. By establishing a novel theoretical framework (the complex model of size), this study identifies specific ways in which material and perceptual smallness affect power, identity, regime stability, and leverage in international politics. The small states of the Gulf (Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates) managed to build up considerable influence in regional politics over the last decade, although their size is still considered an essential, irresolvable weakness, which makes them secondary actors to great powers such as Saudi Arabia or Iran. Breaking down explicit and implicit biases towards largeness, the book examines specific case studies related to foreign and security policy behaviour, including the Gulf wars, the Arab Uprisings, the Gulf rift, and the Abraham Accords. Analysing the often-neglected small Gulf states, the volume is an important contribution to international relations theory, making it a key resource for students and academics interested in Small State Studies, Gulf studies, and the political science of the Middle East.
Download or read book Strong Societies and Weak States written by Joel S. Migdal and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 1988-11-21 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why do many Asian, African, and Latin American states have such difficulty in directing the behavior of their populations--in spite of the resources at their disposal? And why do a small number of other states succeed in such control? What effect do failing laws and social policies have on the state itself? In answering these questions, Joel Migdal takes a new look at the role of the state in the third world. Strong Societies and Weak States offers a fresh approach to the study of state-society relations and to the possibilities for economic and political reforms in the third world. In Asia, Africa, and Latin America, state institutions have established a permanent presence among the populations of even the most remote villages. A close look at the performance of these agencies, however, reveals that often they operate on principles radically different from those conceived by their founders and creators in the capital city. Migdal proposes an answer to this paradox: a model of state-society relations that highlights the state's struggle with other social organizations and a theory that explains the differing abilities of states to predominate in those struggles.
Download or read book The Growth Paths of State Society Relations written by Mohamed Ismail Sabry and published by Emerald Group Publishing. This book was released on 2023-09-18 with total page 281 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Combining case studies with empirical and theoretical game analysis, Mohamed Ismail Sabry presents four State-Business-Labor Relations (SBLR) modes for considering the power relationships at play in the interactions between government, business, and society.
Download or read book The Gulf States in International Political Economy written by Kristian Coates Ulrichsen and published by Springer. This book was released on 2016-05-02 with total page 277 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Kristian Coates Ulrichsen documents the startling rise of the Arab Gulf States as regional powers with international reach and provides a definitive account of how they have become embedded in the global system of power, politics, and policy-making.
Download or read book State Society Relations in Ba thist Iraq written by Achim Rohde and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2010-04-05 with total page 268 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Examines whether traditional paradigms of totalitarian rule can be applied to Ba'thist Iraq. This work examines state-society relations and uncovers the nature of the regime and how Iraqis lived with it.
