Gulf Foreign Policies in Flux: Drivers, Developments, and Trends

Workshop Concept:

This workshop will examine the foreign policies of Gulf States in the past decade. It will bring together leading scholars from various disciplines to understand how, why, and in what ways Gulf foreign policies have or have not shifted between 2014 and the present day.

We are looking for contributions to this workshop that will further scholarly literature on Gulf foreign policies in three ways. First, the workshop is comprehensive in geographical reach (all of the Gulf states rather than solely the small ones, specific states, or solely members of the Gulf), in topic (not focused only on security or economics), and in scope (not only focused on Gulf relations with one world region). As a result, we will accept submissions related to those states, regions, and topics. Second, this workshop will take into account recent developments, such as the GCC Crisis (2017-2021), Russia’s invasion of Ukraine (2022-present), Israel’s invasion of the Gaza Strip, the Saudi rapprochement with Iran, and the emergence of new global powers into the Gulf. Papers relating to these developments therefore will also be welcomed. Third, we hope that the workshop will feature the work of scholars from a variety of disciplines, ranging from international relations to political science to economics. For that reason, we will look for contributions from different points of view about Gulf foreign policies.

This workshop aims to produce a series of detailed chapters of various aspects of Gulf foreign policy, with the best contributions to be collated and published as part of a comprehensive edited volume. The volume is already under contract with IB Tauris, and is slated for publication in late 2025.

We will focus on four main themes: the economic drivers of Gulf foreign policies, issues of conflict and security facing the Gulf states, the ways that domestic politics of each Gulf state affects foreign policies, and the future of Gulf foreign policies. While other works have traced the foreign policies of individual Gulf states, specifically Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE, this workshop will take stock of Gulf foreign policies since the resolution of the Gulf Crisis, the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, and the Gaza war to cover various drivers of Gulf foreign policies as assertive and increasingly non-aligned actors in the international system.

We will be soliciting papers on a range of topics, including but not limited to:

• Economic drivers of Gulf foreign policies
  • Diversification
  • Energy transition
  • Intra-Gulf trade and investment

• Issues of conflict and security
  • Gaza war and the Gulf
  • Gulf militaries
  • Gulf states’ reactions to the rise of the Houthis
• Ways that domestic politics of each Gulf state affects foreign policies
  • Impacts of parliaments on foreign policymaking
  • Role of the personalities of individual rulers on foreign policies
  • Linking political science international relations literatures
• Areas of concern about the future of Gulf foreign policies
  • Relations with Israel
  • Gulf stances towards a two-state solution and ties with Palestine
  • Links with the United States amidst concerns of American disengagement from the region
  • Use of sports diplomacy to bolster foreign policy
  • The future of Gulf-led mediation