On March 9, 2014, POMEPS and Ca’ Foscari University brought together scholars based in the Middle East, Europe, and the United States to Venice, Italy for a workshop on “Visions of Gulf Security.” The workshop focused on how events since late 2010 have affected the security challenges facing the Persian Gulf, including the advancing negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program, the internal dynamics of the Gulf Cooperation Council, sectarianism, Islamist movements, internal stability, and human security issues. The discussion explored which assumptions about Gulf security have proven resilient, and which require rethinking.
Each participant in the workshop contributed a short essay about the relevant academic literature and significant new challenges to distinct issue areas. A full list of these essays appears below. Each essay is published here, and as a free, downloadable PDF collection in the POMEPS Studies series.
“Saudi-Iranian rapprochement? The incentives and the obstacles,” F. Gregory Gause, III, University of Vermont
“Qatar, the Ikwhan, and transnational relations in the Gulf,” David Roberts, King’s College London
“Seeking to explain the rise of sectarianism in the Middle East,” Toby Dodge, London School of Economics and Political Science
“Courting fitnah: Saudi Arabia’s responses to the Arab Uprisings,” Augustus Richard Norton, Boston University
“Saudi Arabia’s Muslim Brotherhood predicament,” Stéphane Lacroix, Sciences Po
“Explaining the spread of sectarian conflict: Insights from comparative politics,” Fred H. Lawson, Mills College
“The roots and future of sectarianism in the Gulf,” Frederic M. Wehrey, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
“The contest for ‘youth’ in the GCC,” Kristin Smith Diwan, American University School of International Service
“The Gulf states and the Muslim Brotherhood,” Guido Steinberg, German Institute for International and Security Affairs
“Human security in the Gulf: Concept or reality?” Kristian Coates Ulrichsen, Rice University
“Visions of Persian Gulf Security,” Mehran Kamrava, Georgetown University School of Foreign Service in Qatar
“The elusive project of common security in the Persian Gulf,” Rouzbeh Parsi, Lund University
“The Obama Doctrine,” Gary Sick, Columbia University