ABSTRACT
This chapter provides historical, socio-political, economic and cultural accounts of the six oil-rich Arabian Gulf countries. It argues that recent social, political, economic, cultural, religious, ideological and epistemological challenges confronted by the region have ignited ideological, socio-political, geopolitical and economic debates concerning how to harmonise Islam with global neoliberal capitalist development strategies for nation building in the Arabian Gulf region. In the context of these debates, access to the English language has become a key concern for stakeholders in the Arabian Gulf countries. The debates over English education policy have been framed by neoliberal capitalist perspectives, in which the view of English as linguistic, economic and cultural capital is primarily tied to employability and economic mobility.
