Reform in the Middle East Oil Monarchies PDF
Preview Reform in the Middle East Oil Monarchies
Reform ME Oil TP 20/9/07 6:46 PM Page i Reform in the Middle East Oil Monarchies Reform ME Oil TP 20/9/07 6:46 PM Page ii This page intentionally left blank Reform ME Oil TP 20/9/07 6:46 PM Page iii Reform in the Middle East Oil Monarchies Edited by Anoushiravan Ehteshami Steven Wright and ITH ACA P R E S S FrontMatter.qxd 9/28/07 4:52 PM Page iv 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 FrontMatter.qxd 9/28/07 4:52 PM Page v 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] FrontMatter.qxd 9/28/07 4:52 PM Page vi 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] FrontMatter.qxd 9/28/07 4:52 PM Page vii 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 [vii] FrontMatter.qxd 9/28/07 4:52 PM Page viii 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. [viii] FrontMatter.qxd 9/28/07 4:52 PM Page ix 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. [ix]
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