ABSTRACT
The early part of 1991 was a deeply unsettling period for Bahrain. The battle for the liberation of Kuwait recalled memories dating back to the eight-year Iraqi-Iranian War, and reminded the tiny island-state of its own vulnerability and inability to cope with such eventualities. The Gulf crisis exposed the weakness of the Gulf Cooperation Council’s (GCC) concept of collective security and the tiny island-state realized that a collective arrangement could no longer be the solution for regional security. As Bahrain matured as an independent state, a set of challenges confronted the Al Khalifa family. Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait served as a painful reminder that Bahrain’s road to security and prosperity was still fraught with danger. Bahrain greeted the outbreak of hostilities with a certain degree of relief: the war had finally dispelled the uncertainty that had seriously affected business confidence on the island.
