CONTEMPORARY GULF STUDIES SERIES EDITORS: STEVEN WRIGHT · ABDULLAH BAABOOD Divided Gulf The Anatomy of a Crisis Edited by Andreas Krieg Contemporary Gulf Studies Series Editors Steven Wright College of Humanities and Social Sciences Hamad bin Khalifa University Doha, Qatar Abdullah Baabood College of Humanities and Social Sciences Hamad bin Khalifa University Doha, Qatar Salient Features: • The Gulf lies at the intersection of regional conflicts and the com- peting interests of global powers and therefore publications in the series reflect this complex environment. • The series will see publication on the dynamic nature of how the Gulf region has been undergoing enormous changes attracting regional and international interests. • The series is managed through Gulf Studies Center at Qatar University, which has emerged as the leading institution within the Gulf region offering graduate degrees in Gulf Studies at both mas- ters and doctoral level. Aims and Scope: This series offer a platform from which scholarly work on the most pressing issues within the Gulf region will be examined. The scope of the book series will encompass work being done on the member states of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC): Saudi Arabia, Oman, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait in addition to Iraq, Iran and Yemen. The series will focus on three types of volumes: Single and jointly authored monograph; Thematic edited books; Course text books. The scope of the series will include publications relating to the countries of focus, in terms of the following themes which will allow for interdiscipli- nary and multidisciplinary inquiry on the Gulf region to flourish: Politics and political development Regional and international relations Regional cooperation and integration Defense and security Economics and development Food and water security Energy and environment Civil society and the private sector Identity, migration, youth, gender and employment Health and education Media, literature, arts & culture More information about this series at http://www.palgrave.com/gp/series/15318 Andreas Krieg Editor Divided Gulf The Anatomy of a Crisis Editor Andreas Krieg Defence Studies Department King’s College London London, UK ISSN 2524-602X ISSN 2524-6038 (electronic) Contemporary Gulf Studies ISBN 978-981-13-6313-9 ISBN 978-981-13-6314-6 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-6314-6 Library of Congress Control Number: 2019930399 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2019 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Cover credits: eStudio Calamar image Cover designed by Fernando Tatay, shutterstock.com This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. The registered company address is: 152 Beach Road, #21-01/04 Gateway East, Singapore 189721, Singapore A cknowledgements This edited volume came together during the course of the 2017 Gulf Crisis as an attempt to provide the first holistic academic account of a crisis that in the West had widely been misunderstood. This book is the result of sieving through the narratives that were soon to define the new post-factual reality not just of the stand-off between Qatar and its neighbours but more importantly also define the new reality of relations between all actors in the region. In the first eighteen months of the Gulf Divide when this book was written, tensions started to escalate between the Gulf monarchies involved and its citizens that would increasingly suck external observers, among them academics, analysts and journalists, into the conflict. While for most of us the war over narratives remained limited to social media attacks, trolling and botting, others fell victim to the increased clamp down on the freedom of speech particularly in the blockading countries. Therefore, this book developed amid a climate of repression on civil liberties in the Gulf that has been unprecedented, making it almost impossible to reach out to analysts and writers working in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates or Bahrain. I would hereby like to express my hope that the conditions for the freedom to think, speak and assemble will improve as the Gulf Divide becomes a depressing yet tolerated new reality. I would also like to express my gratitude to all contributors without whom this book would not have been possible. Their valuable input to this book made this idea come to life over a busy period where all of us were drawn to daily, new developments and escalations in what was v vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS to become the most severe Gulf crisis to date. A special thanks goes to Steven Wright and Abdullah Baabood whose support for this edited volume in the Contemporary Gulf Studies series of Palgrave was instru- mental to get this project off the ground. Their constant support in the writing, editing and production phase was of great help to me as an editor. I also would like to thank all the various journalists, analysts, diplo- mats, ministers and officials from the Gulf and the West whose empir- ical input into writing this book has helped me to triangulate findings, rumours and narratives in an effort to produce a book that tries to stay focused on the facts while admitting that truth remains a subjective real- ity in a highly polarized context such as the current Gulf Divide. Finally, I would like give a special thank you to my wife Zohal and my daughter Amalia who had to endure my impatience and fatigue through- out the editing process in the summer of 2018. Their love and support has helped me to stay sane when trying to get submissions in on time for the various deadlines. c ontents 1 Introduction 1 Andreas Krieg 2 Perceptions and Divisions in Security and Defense Structures in Arab Gulf States 19 Kristian Coates Ulrichsen 3 Tribe and Tribalism: The Trojan Horse of GCC States? 37 Maryam Al-Kuwari 4 Bitter Brethren: Freud’s Narcissism of Minor Differences and the Gulf Divide 53 Mohammed Hashem Al-Hashemi 5 The UAE, Qatar, and the Question of Political Islam 71 Christopher M. Davidson 6 The Weaponization of Narratives Amid the Gulf Crisis 91 Andreas Krieg 7 The Saudi Dimension: Understanding the Kingdom’s Position in the Gulf Crisis 109 Neil Quilliam vii viii CONTENTS 8 The “Trump Factor” in the Gulf Divide 127 Giorgio Cafiero 9 The Political Economy of the Gulf Divide 145 Steven Wright 10 The Future of the GCC Amid the Gulf Divide 161 Abdullah Baabood 11 The Libyan Revolution Undone—The Conversation Will Not Be Televised 179 Anas El Gomati 12 The Evolution of Turkey—Qatar Relations Amid a Growing Gulf Divide 197 Ali Bakir 13 Iran and Qatar: A Forced Rapprochement 217 Sébastien Boussois 14 Qatar’s Response to the Crisis: Public Diplomacy as a Means of Crisis Management 233 Hamad Al-Muftah 15 Making Sense of Europe’s Response to the Gulf Crisis 251 Jeremias Kettner 16 Conclusion 267 Andreas Krieg Index 275 n c otes on ontributors Mohammed Hashem Al-Hashemi is a Qatari youth advocate and doctoral student at Brunel University London, researching youth empowerment and national capacity building in Qatar. Previously, Mohammad founded several youth initiatives and was a member of sev- eral advisory boards. He has obtained a master’s in development studies from School of Oriental and Asian Studies (SOAS) and worked as a gov- ernment and public affairs advisor for ExxonMobil. Maryam Al-Kuwari is a Ph.D. candidate in the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies at University of Exeter. She holds a master’s degree in Middle East Politics from SOAS, University of London. Since grad- uation, Maryam has been working as a Teaching Assistant (TA) in the Department of International Affairs at Qatar University, where she had been teaching and assisting faculty in researches about the Gulf region. In addition to working as a TA, Maryam is active in community develop- ment. She co-founded a number of initiatives and dedicates a lot of her time to several campaigns in Doha, Qatar. Dr. Hamad Al-Muftah holds a Ph.D. in Digital Diplomacy from the University of Bradford. His research interests are public and digital diplomacy on which he published a number of conference papers and journal articles. He is currently doing a master’s in Policy Leadership at Georgetown University. Hamad holds a master’s in international strategy and diplomacy from the London School of Economics (LSE). He also holds an M.B.A. from the University of St. Thomas in Houston Texas, a ix