After the Sheikhs: The Coming Collapse of the Gulf Monarchies by Christopher Davidson Read Free Book Online Page B

China
PGA
Professional Golfers Association
PIN
personal identification number
QIA
Qatar Investment Authority
QPC
Qatar Petroleum Company
QSI
Qatar Sports Investments
QE2
Queen Elizabeth 2 cruise liner
RAND
Research and Development Corporation
SABIC
Saudi Arabian Basic Industries Corporation
SCR
Supreme Council of Rulers (of the UAE)
Sinopec
China Petroleum and Chemical Corporation
SMS
short message service
SPC
Supreme Petroleum Council (of the UAE)
TDIC
Tourism and Development Investment Company (of Abu Dhabi)
UAE
United Arab Emirates
UCL
University College London
UK
United Kingdom (of Great Britain and Northern Ireland)
UN
United Nations
UNDP
United Nations Development Programme
UNESCO
United Nations Education, Scientific, and Cultural Organisation
UNICEF
United Nations Children’s Fund
UNRWA
United Nations Relief and Works Agency
UNSC
UN Security Council
US
United States (of America)
USSR
Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
VAT
value added tax
WTO
World Trade Organisation
ZCCF
Zayed Centre for Coordination and Follow-Up

POSTSCRIPT
    The original, British edition of this book went to press in summer 2012. At that time there was little, if any, mainstream discussion outside the region of the prospect of serious political unrest or regime failure in the Gulf monarchies. Academia and the policy community, at least among the monarchies’ Western allies, had for the most part ‘ring-fenced’ these states as exceptional and somehow aloof from the Arab Spring movements sweeping the broader Middle East. With extensive trade and military ties to the West, coupled with the described accumulation of ‘soft power’ influence, this position was both predictable and understandable. With a mixture of carrots and sticks the poorer Gulf monarchies had, after all, managed to contain most of the protests that had spilled onto their streets in the immediate aftermath of the revolutions in North Africa. Meanwhile, the wealthier monarchies seemingly remained in command of largely apolitical, well-heeled societies with little, if anything, in common with those dwelling in the angry tenements of Tunis, Cairo, or Tripoli.
    Since then, however, much has changed. By the winter of 2012 most leading Western broadsheets were carrying articles and predictions of either monarchical collapse or at least some serious impending turbulence. Veteran foreign affairs correspondents filing reports on protests, trials, growing poverty, and cyberspace activism in the Gulf states became commonplace, with even leading US think tanks publishing on the prospects of ‘Revolution in Riyadh.’ With a growing awareness of the rising discontent among increasingly large swathes of Gulf nationals, and being better plugged into regional grassroots campaigns and emerging opposition groups, the international commentariat seemed to have finally woken up to the struggle that had already begun to take place betweenthe people of the region and their increasingly authoritarian and reactionary elites.
    This current, unprecedented international interest in Gulf politics and the possibility of a ‘Gulf Spring’ is in many ways due to the hundreds of headline-grabbing incidents regarding political activism, human rights, and corruption that have taken place in the region over the past six months. Almost without exception, these have provided further, compelling evidence in support of the central thesis of this book. Namely that traditional monarchy as a legitimate regime type in the region is soon going to reach the end of its lifespan, especially as most of the Gulf states are now caught in a pincer movement of pressures between unsustainable wealth distribution mechanisms and increasingly powerful ‘super modernising forces’ that can no longer be controlled or co-opted by political elites. The former continue to manifest themselves in widening wealth gaps and increasing real unemployment, despite ramped-up public spending programmes and urgent public sector job creation