Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book explains both the materialist and the symbolic in the efforts and initiatives launched by the Arab Gulf States. It focuses on how perceptions came about and ways to improve cultural and political realities on the ground in the Arab Gulf States, for the hope that they can directly feed into the perceptions of the Arab Gulf States and their societies in the West. The book examines the imaginings of the Arab Gulf States in the West: how Arab Gulf States and their citizens are imagined, constructed, and perceived.