ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at the modern evolution of the Gulf security system, and in particular the way the recent development in US Middle East policy is signalling the end of the current structure of the regional order. If the US military presence in the Gulf were to provide stability and ensure the uninterrupted flow of energy supplies from the region to the world, the political events that followed the 9/11 attacks questioned the stabilising factor of US policy in the region. The new regime emerging in Baghdad and led by Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki after 2006 only exacerbated the Gulf anxieties. The swift turn from the US government towards a post-Mubarak Egypt embarrassed those Gulf monarchies that had been close supporters of the Egyptian president. The warming up of US–Gulf relations culminated in Donald Trump visit to Saudi Arabia in May 2017.
