ABSTRACT
The Gulf presents a genuine cultural fault line dividing the Persians to the West and the Arabs to the East. The 1991 Gulf War may not have been as decisive an event as was originally predicted, but its results will reverberate throughout the region for the remainder of the decade. The Persian Gulf will remain an area where instability is endemic. A region without cultural or political cohesion, the Persian Gulf comprises countries and societies at varying levels of development and with differing resource bases that share a common body of water of critical importance to all of them. Iran has the potential to dominate the Gulf by virtue of its population size, its land area, its geostrategic position, and its material resources. Because of Iraq’s geostrategic position and the uncertainty of its future, US decision makers will face a challenge in crafting a viable policy toward Iraq.
