Introduction

The central position of the Persian Gulf as one of the main highways between East and West has long invested it with special importance. Although all of the major Western maritime powers of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries set their sights on maritime supremacy in the Persian Gulf, it was the British that won the race and eventually subordinated the Persian Gulf sheikhdoms. This chapter provides an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book. As the issue of the three islands of Abu Musa, Greater Tunb and Lesser Tunb cannot be understood in a vacuum, the book proposes to discuss it in a broader historical and strategic context and to look into the regional and international circumstances under which the issue took on relevance. It shows how the issue of the three islands is a side effect of the quest by a foreign global power to dominate the Persian Gulf. The book examines the extended phase of activity related to the three islands by the UAE.