The Gulf and the Global Economy

The opening chapter in this book assesses the multifaceted reasons behind the Gulf States’ uneven record of integration into the global economy. It begins by documenting how the ties binding the Gulf States into the global economy are both deep-rooted and long predate the discovery and extraction of oil in the twentieth century. Rather, the opening section highlights the historical interconnectivity of the transnational flows that tied the region into a broader economic hinterland spanning the Indian Oceanic world. Nevertheless, these processes were patchy and subject to partial reversal during the early oil years. Thus, the second section in this chapter examines the entrenched dynamics that also served to limit the Gulf States’ relationships with the international system, both politically and economically. Such dynamics included the conservative leanings of many of the ‘post-traditional’ governing systems in the (Arabian) Gulf, and the Gulf States’ enmeshment in Western political and military spheres of influence, during the period of prolonged British protection and following the passage to independence.