Reform in the Middle East Oil Monarchies

320 Pages·2008·1.44 MB·English

by  Anoushiravan Ehteshami

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Reform
in the
Middle East
Oil Monarchies
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Reform
in the
Middle East
Oil Monarchies
Edited by
Anoushiravan Ehteshami Steven Wright
and
ITH ACA
P R E S S
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REFORMINTHEMIDDLEEASTOILMONARCHIES
Published by
Ithaca Press
8 Southern Court
South Street
Reading
Berkshire
RG1 4QS
UK
www.ithacapress.co.uk
Ithaca Press is an imprint of Garnet Publishing Limited
Copyright © Anoushiravan Ehteshami and Steven Wright 2008
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by
any electronic or mechanical means, including information
storage and retrieval systems, without permission in
writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote
brief passages in a review.
First Edition
ISBN 13: 978-0-86372-323-0
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Typeset byPHi, India
Jacket designby David Rose
Cover photoused with permission of Ali Jasim/Reuters/Corbis
Printed by Biddles, UK
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Contents
Foreword
Sir Donald Hawley vii
Contributors ix
Part 1
Reform Issues in Contemporary Perspective
1.Political Reform in the Gulf Monarchies: From
Liberalization to Democratization? A Comparative
Perspective
Gerd Nonneman 3
2.Reform in the Arabian Peninsula World
The Rt Hon. Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean 47
3.Patterns of Democratic Deficit: Is it Islam?
Bahgat Korany 61
Part 2
Reform in the Arabian Peninsula
4.Political Reform in Bahrain: The Turning Tide
Neil Quilliam 81
5.Deconstructing Before Building: Perspectives on
Democracy in Qatar
Ahmed Abdelkareem Saif 103
6.Oman’s Approach to Development
His Excellency Sayyid Badr bin Sa‘ud Al-Busaidi 129
7.Economic Governance and Reform in Saudi Arabia
Rodney Wilson 133
[v]
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REFORM IN THE MIDDLE EAST OIL MONARCHIES
8. The Impact of Economic Reform on Dubai
Christopher M. Davidson 153
9. ICT and the Gulf Arab States: A Force for Democracy?
Emma Murphy 181
10. The Future of Reform in the Societies of the
GCC Countries
Mohammad Al Rumaihi 217
Part 3
Reform in a Geopolitical and International Context
11. US Foreign Policy and the Changed Definition of
Gulf Security
Steven M. Wright 229
12. Synergies in Reform: Case Studies of Saudi
Arabia and Iran
Mahjoob Zweiri 247
Bibliography 263
Index 283
[vi]
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Foreword
Sir Donald Hawley
This book, the fruit of a lively conference at Durham University in
September 2005 under the auspices of the Sir William Luce Fund and
the Institute of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies, is a valuable contri-
bution to the study of progress, reform and popular participation in
government in the Gulf states – Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, the United
Arab Emirates, the Sultanate of Oman and Saudi Arabia.
Political, economic and social conditions in these states are now
very different from those of 1958 when I first served in the Gulf – as
HM Political Agent in the then Trucial States. Undeveloped as they then
were, serious journals in Britain argued that the conservative rulers in
the Gulf were as doomed as Egypt’s monarch had been and Iraq’s and
Yemen’s were about to be. It was received wisdom that the area was
inherently unstable and parts of academia propounded this thesis as
witnessed by Professor Fred Halliday’s book Arabia without Sultans. It
was, however, only a short time after my arrival in the Gulf that I came
to regard this analysis as flawed. These traditional states, moving with
the times have, perhaps paradoxically, proved the most stable in the
Middle East for the last 50 years or so, except when Iraq threatened
Kuwait in 1961 and invaded it in 1991 and the Tunb islands were seized
by Iran on the eve of Britain’s withdrawal from the Gulf in 1971.
In 1958 the Sheikh’s majlis was an open place of debate on every
topic, but times and conditions have changed and, concomitant with an
advance in economic circumstances and enviable social and welfare con-
ditions, over the years more modern political institutions and popular
participation in government and elections have been introduced – in dif-
ferent degrees – to meet the needs of more complex states. The gradual
pace of change has perhaps been contributory to the resulting stability.
More recently some Western countries have sought to promote
democracy of a Western type as the panacea for the countries of the
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REFORM IN THE MIDDLE EAST OIL MONARCHIES
wider region. Desirable as this may be in certain cases, it is not necessar-
ily a cap that immediately fits every head and democratic institutions of
this type cannot function well if there is, as the present state of Iraq
shows, no security. Whilst internal and external imperatives in all the
Gulf states point to accelerated popular participation in government,
important questions of degree, timing and nature require separate
consideration in each state.
This book helps to explain some of these factors and will, I hope,
be useful to those people – practitioners of government, academics,
diplomats and foreign statesmen, politicians and academics – to whom
the continued peaceful existence of the Gulf states is of concern in the
changed circumstances of the modern world.
I also hope that it will be of use in future forums where the subject
is studied.
Congratulations are due to the authors for their contribution to
understanding and to Dr Steven Wright for coordinating this project.
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Contributors
His Excellency Sayyid Badr bin Sa‘ud Al-Busaidi is the Sultanate of
Oman’s Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs.
Dr Christopher Davidson is a Lecturer in Middle East Politics in the
Institute for Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies at Durham University.
He was formerly based at Zayed University in the United Arab Emirates.
Professor Anoushiravan Ehteshami is Head of the School of
Government and International Affairs and Professor of International
Relations at Durham University. He is also a Fellow of the World
Economic Forum and the Royal Society of Arts.
Sir Donald Hawley KCMG, MBE had a distinguished public service
career between 1955 and 1981, first in the Sudan and then as a diplomat
in several Middle East countries before becoming the first Ambassador
to the Sultanate of Oman and then British High Commissioner in
Malaysia. President of the Royal Society for Asian Affairs and the Anglo-
Omani and British-Malaysian Societies, he is the author of a number of
books, mainly on the Middle East.
Professor Bahgat Korany is Professor of International Relations at the
Universities of Montreal and Cairo.
Professor Emma Murphy is Professor of Political Economy in the
School of Government and International Affairs at Durham University.
She is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.
Professor Gerd Nonneman holds the Al-Qasimi Chair of Arab Gulf
Studies at the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies (IAIS), University of
Exeter. He was formerly Professor of International Relations and Middle
East Politics at Lancaster University.
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