ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the founding and development of the Cooperation Council of the Arab States of the Gulf, known as the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), and its capacity and ability to confront the crisis that ISIL created in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). It explores three main areas: the founding, the charter and the development of capacities of the GCC, the Middle East states and the West and the GCC and ISIL. The GCC was founded on May 26, 1981, in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates. The idea of the GCC was first proposed in 1978, though a primary obstacle to its realization was the situation of Iraq and subsequently that of Iran. The GCC concerns on security and social order have led the Gulf monarchies to devote large sums of money for the purchase of arms and to enter into military security pacts with different nations.
