ABSTRACT

This chapter examines the extent to which misunderstandings of the underlying natures of North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) and the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) have contributed to evident misperceptions of what the Co-operation Initiative (ICI) should and could achieve. NATO’s most prominent member states have similarly close bilateral ties with individual Arab Gulf States and collectively through the GCC. The Istanbul ICI resulted from NATO’s summit in Istanbul in June 2004. The chapter considers the relationship between the GCC and NATO in terms of shared interests and shared threats. It considers the factors that may be pushing the prospect of closer strategic alignment in opposite directions. GCC and Asian navies have worked together in anti-piracy operations around the Horn of Africa, and the United Arab Emirates has participated actively in the Indian Ocean Naval Symposium established in 2008 to expand maritime security cooperation.