ABSTRACT
This chapter offers an assessment of the obstacles to progress experienced by the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) through an examination of both internal and external factors. The GCC is often dismissed as a club for oil-rich monarchs in which they can air their differences, offer each other solidarity and make grandiose plans that rarely leave the drawing board. Among the earliest achievements of the GCC was the creation of the free trade area, and it is in the economic sphere where the organization's progress has been most marked. The chapter examines the outlook and prospects for the GCC created by recent changes in the regional and domestic environments caused by the Arab Spring. A closer look at the structures, aims, and evolution of the GCC itself as an international organization leaves the impression of a body that in terms of its physical footprint is barely present.
