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The Persian Gulf Dilemma: United in the West, Divided in the Gulf

Since the beginning of the 20th century, Western influence in the Persian Gulf has continued to expand; this process has also exposed several challenges from rivals of the United States. The pace of economic development for the oil-rich Gulf States has highlighted divergences in terms of regional politics, as Saudi Arabia’s economic leap provided a platform to claim regional leadership.

The Persian Gulf Dilemma United in the West Divided in
 

Challenged Hegemony: The United States, China,
and Russia in the Persian Gulf

 

By Steve A. Yetiv and Katerina Oskarsson

Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2018, 238 pages, $29.95, ISBN: 1503604179

 

The Arab Gulf States and the West: Perceptions
and Realities – Opportunities and Perils

 

Edited by Dania Koleilat Khatib and Marwa Maziad

New York: Routledge, 2018, 332 pages, $36.40, ISBN: 113858536X

 

Divided Gulf: The Anatomy of a Crisis

 

By Andreas Krieg

Singapore: Palgrave Macmillan, 2019, 281 pages, $95.85, ISBN: 9811363137

 

Energy Kingdoms: Oil and Political Survival in
the Persian Gulf

 

Edited by Jim Krane

New York: Columbia University Press, 2019, 215 pages, $26.00, ISBN: 0231179308

 

 

Received Date: 15/02/2020    Accepted Date: 15/04/2020 

 

Since the beginning of the 20th century, Western influence in the Persian Gulf has continued to expand; this process has also exposed several challenges from rivals of the United States. However, this increasing influence was not extensive only in one part of this political landscape, as middle powers from the Persian Gulf pursued lobbies in U.S. politics. Moreover, the development of distinctive bilateral ties between the Persian Gulf States and their western patron culminated in varying degrees of dependence on and coherence with the U.S. grand strategy. The pace of economic development for the oil-rich Gulf States has highlighted divergences in terms of regional politics, as Saudi Arabia’s economic leap provided a platform to claim regional leadership. Contradictions in political preferences such as attitudes toward political Islam, political freedom, etc. paved the way for continuously conflictual bilateral affairs. Turkish involvement in Persian Gulf politics also created a rift between Saudi Arabia and Qatar, which has caused several issues in the last decade.

 

One should grasp how the United States has been historically embedded in the political history of the Persian Gulf with particular consideration as to when and how hegemonic challenges became observable in this region. Steve A. Yetiv and Katerina Oskarsson’s Challenged Hegemony: The United States, China, and Russia in the Persian Gulf presents a comprehensive historical overview of U.S. involvement in the political sphere of the Gulf. This study utilizes data ranging over 30 years regarding oil exports and the arms trade between U.S.-China-Russia and the Persian Gulf States. Yetiv and Oskarsson endeavor to create an accurate measurement of U.S. hegemony and its challenges by focusing on the following three parameters: (i) the state of diplomatic relations between external major powers and regional states; (ii) military presence, security arrangements and arms sales to the region; and (iii) economic and energy ties between regional states and external major powers (p. 8). They claim that these three super-categories, each with multiple parameters, have a better potential than other approaches for measuring the impact of U.S. hegemony and its challenges in the Persian Gulf.

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