ABSTRACT

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.

chapter 1|3 pages

Politics in the Persian Gulf

An overview

part I|50 pages

Historical context

chapter 2|10 pages

The Ottomans in the Arabian Peninsula

chapter 4|10 pages

Saudi Arabia and the 1744 Alliance between the Al Saud and the Al-Sheikh

A legitimizing and enduring union

chapter 6|7 pages

The States of the Persian Gulf

From protectorates to independent countries

part II|106 pages

Society and culture

chapter 7|26 pages

Modernity and the Arab Gulf States

The politics of heritage, memory, and forgetting

chapter 9|13 pages

Migrant Urbanism in Gulf Cities

A reality without vision?

chapter 10|15 pages

Social Division in Iraq

Ahl al-Shiqāq wa-l-Nifāq?

chapter 11|15 pages

Sectarianism in the Gulf Monarchies

Regional and domestic factors of Sunni–Shiʿi tensions

chapter 13|10 pages

Oil for Art’s Sake

Art and culture in the GCC

part IV|103 pages

Domestic politics

chapter 20|15 pages

Nationalism in Iran

chapter 22|16 pages

Charismatic Authority in a Hybrid State

Reading Max Weber and beyond in post-revolutionary Iran *

chapter 24|19 pages

Parliamentary Politics in Kuwait

chapter 26|9 pages

Royal Succession in Saudi Arabia

The rise of Mohammed bin Salman

part V|87 pages

Regional security dynamics

chapter 27|13 pages

Security in the Persian Gulf

chapter 29|20 pages

Between Anarchy and arms Race

A security dilemma in the Persian Gulf

chapter 31|12 pages

Saudi–Iranian Relations

Between identity, ideology, and interest

part VI|51 pages

The Persian Gulf and the world

chapter 33|16 pages

The United States and the Persian Gulf

The art of surviving in stormy waters

chapter 34|9 pages

The United States and Iran

Transcending no man’s land

chapter 35|10 pages

Iran–USA Relations

Challenges and opportunities

chapter 36|14 pages

China in the Persian Gulf

Hedging under the US umbrella