ABSTRACT
Terrorism is perceived as a new phenomenon that draws its leadership and resources from the region where most of the world’s petroleum resources are located: the Middle East and the Gulf. The internal politics of the countries of the Middle East and the Gulf would appear to be shaping international affairs as often as the latter are shaping the former. Shifting combinations of socio-economic and political factors in the Middle East and in particular the Gulf region have become critical in shaping the world’s petroleum market. Anyone aware of the practices of state institutions and the dynamics of socio-political processes in the Gulf will realize how complex and fluid is the situation, within as well as between the states of that region. While many of the US policy choices may be well understood in the West and indeed have been popular in the United States itself.
