The Gulf Co-operation Council and security in the Arabian Gulf

Al-Absy, MR

Abstract

For many years the Arabian Gulf was an area which ranked
high in the list of British overseas interests, so high
in fact that Britain was the protecting power of the
Gulf states by virtue of exclusive treaties. In the
years following the second world war the economic importance
of these states increased enormously with the dramatic
exploitation of their single asset, oil. This development
was parallelled by the decline in the ability of
Britain to maintain stability as protecting power, culminating
in her complete withdrawal in 1971. Stability was
seen as the prerequisite for access to oil; old disputes
between the Gulf states threatened stability as well as
the possibility of Super-power involvement leading to
confrontation. This thesis deals with the way the Gulf
states themselves addressed these problems by establishing
the Gulf Co-operation Council in 1981. Internal threats
to stability were resolved, institutions and procedures
drafted to harmonise economic policies and to tackle the
social consequences of the exploitation of oil. External
threats, however, continue to cause international concern;
analysis of the aims and performance of the GCC leads to
an assessment of the likelihood of its success in replacing
Britain as the protecting power in an area which will continue
to be of international concern as far as can be
reasonably forecast.

Citation

Al-Absy, M. The Gulf Co-operation Council and security in the Arabian Gulf. (Dissertation). University of Salford

• Thesis Type: Dissertation
• Deposit Date: Jun 30, 2021
• Award Date: Jan 1, 1985