The Routledge Handbook of Persian Gulf Politics provides a comprehensive and up-to-date analysis of Persian Gulf politics, history, economics, and society.
The volume begins its examination of Ottoman rule in the Arabian Peninsula, exploring other dimensions of the region’s history up until and after independence in the 1960s and 1970s. Featuring scholars from a range of disciplines, the book demonstrates how the Persian Gulf’s current, complex politics is a product of interwoven dynamics rooted in historical developments and memories, profound social, cultural, and economic changes underway since the 1980s and the 1990s, and inter-state and international relations among both regional actors and between them and the rest of the world. The book comprises a total of 36 individual chapters divided into the following six sections:
- Historical Context
- Society and Culture
- Economic Development
- Domestic Politics
- Regional Security Dynamics
- The Persian Gulf and the World
Examining the Persian Gulf’s increasing importance in regional politics, diplomacy, economics, and security issues, the volume is a valuable resource for scholars, students, and policy makers interested in political science, history, Gulf studies, and the Middle East.
Introduction
- Politics in Persian Gulf: An Overview
- The Ottomans in the Arabian Peninsula
- The Persian Gulf in the Pre-Protectorate Period: 1790–1853
- Sa‘udi Arabia and the 1744 Alliance between the al-Sa‘ud and the al-Shaykh: A Legitimizing and Enduring Union
- Britain’s Presence in the Persian Gulf, 1617–2019
- The States of the Persian Gulf: From Protectorates to Independent Countries
- Modernity and the Arab Gulf States: The Politics of Heritage, Memory, and Forgetting
- Evolving Family Patterns in the Arabian Peninsula
- Migrant Urbanism in Gulf Cities: A Reality without Vision?
- Social Division in Iraq: Ahl al-Shiqāq wa-l-Nifāq?
- Sectarianism in the Gulf Monarchies: Regional and Domestic Factors of Sunni-Shi‘a Tensions
- Redefining Women’s Roles in the Gulf’s Oil Monarchies
- Oil for Art’s Sake: Art and Culture in the GCC
- Rentier Political Economy in the Oil Monarchies
- Global Energy Markets and the Persian Gulf
- The Emergence and Spread of the "Dubai Model" in the GCC Countries
Mehran Kamrava
Part I. Historical Context
Aiza Khan
Allen Fromherz
Joseph Kéchichian
W. Taylor Fain
Lucy M. Abbott
Part II. Society and Culture
Farah Al-Nakib
Amira Sonbol
Florian Wiedmann
Fanar Haddad
Laurence Louër
Mandana E. Limbert
Suzi Mirgani
Part III. Economic Development
Jessie Moritz
Li-Chen Sim
Martin Hvidt
- Labor Migration in the Persian Gulf
- Revisiting the Gulf’s Divided Labor Markets
- Working Women in the Oil Monarchies
- Nationalism in Iran
- Nationalism in the Persian Gulf’s Oil Monarchies
- Charismatic Authority in a Hybrid State: Reading Max Weber and Beyond in Postrevolutionary Iran
- Political Islam in the Arabian Peninsula
- Parliamentary Politics in Kuwait
- Political Absolutism in the Gulf Monarchies
- Royal Succession in Saudi Arabia: The Rise of Mohammad bin Salman
- Security in the Persian Gulf
- Security Dilemmas and Conflict Spirals in the Persian Gulf
- Between Anarchy and Arms Race: A Security Dilemma in the Persian Gulf
- The Rise and Decline of the Gulf Cooperation Council
- Saudi-Iranian Relations: Between Identity, Ideology, and Interest
- The Armed Forces in Post-Revolutionary Iran
- The United States and the Persian Gulf: The Art of Lasting in Stormy Waters
- The United States and Iran: Transcending No-Man’s-Land
- Iran-U.S. Relations: Challenges and Opportunities
- China and the Persian Gulf: Hedging Under the U.S. Umbrella
Zahra Babar
Michael Ewers and Ryan Dicce
Nawra Al Lawati and Gail J. Buttorff
Part IV. Domestic Politics
Hamid Ahmadi
Jill Crystal
Mojtaba Mahdavi
Courtney Freer
Clemens Chay
Steven Wright
Stig Stenslie
Part V. Regional Security Dynamics
Nader Entessar
Fred H. Lawson
Islam Hassan
Kristian Coates Ulrichsen
Massaab Al-Aloosy
Saeid Golkar
Part VI. The Persian Gulf & the World
Houchang Hassan-Yari
Ghoncheh Tazmini
Gawdat Bahgat
Jonathan Fulton
Select Bibliography
Biography
Mehran Kamrava is Professor of Government at Georgetown University in Qatar. His books include A Concise History of Revolution (2020), Troubled Waters: Insecurity in the Persian Gulf (2018), Inside the Arab State (2018), The Impossibility of Palestine: History, Geography, and the Road Ahead (2016), and Qatar: Small State, Big Politics (2015).
‘In this magisterial volume, Mehran Kamrava brings together some of the world’s foremost experts to shed light on one of the most important – yet widely misunderstood – regions of the world. Interrogating dislocations in political, economic, social, geopolitical and cultural realms, this is required reading for anyone desiring a better understanding of the Persian Gulf.’ — Simon Mabon, Director of the Richardson Institute, Lancaster University, UK
‘Mehran Kamrava has assembled a sterling list of authors, a mix of veteran analysts and younger academics who are fresh from the field. The volume helps to define the study of the politics of the Persian Gulf region for some time.’ — F. Gregory Gause, III, Head of International Affairs Department, The Bush School, Texas A&M University, USA