ABSTRACT
The Arab spring was quickly chilled in the Gulf states where monarchies proved more resilient in the face of political challenges than post-revolutionary states in North Africa and the fertile crescent. Money explains some of this resilience but so does the willingness to use the aegis of the Gulf Cooperation Council to apply deadly force against unarmed protestors in Bahrain, where severe repression of the Shiite majority continues and casts its shadow over the hopes of dissenters, young and older, for political opening in these authoritarian states.
