The GCC and the International Relations of the Gulf

Handbook of Regional Cooperation and Integration

“…Outside Europe, this phenomenon is not new. In 1984, the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) decided to create a collective rapid deployment force of 10,000 soldiers divided into two brigades called the Peninsula Shield Force (PSF), based in Saudi Arabia near the Kuwaiti and Iraqi borders (Legrenzi, 2011). When the Arab uprisings reached Bahrain in 2011, the PSF was deployed to enforce the violent crackdown on peaceful protests.…”

Entrusted norms: security, trust, and betrayal in the Gulf Cooperation Council crisis

“…Most research in international politics on the GCC is conducted through the lens of an international alliance facing external threats, often grounded in realist logics that stress the importance of external security and the role of material incentives—logics that are often used to understand the Arab world more generally (Adib-Moghaddam, 2006: 4; Barnett, 1998: 1; Kamrava, 2011: 1; Wright, 2006: 73). From this perspective, the competition between the two regional powers, Iraq and Iran, is the primary security threat that initiates and sustains the alliance (Barnett, 1998: 201; Legrenzi, 2011: 44). Consequently, much of the literature has focused on the GCC’s (in)ability to pacify relations within the alliance and to produce common defense institutions.…”

“…This priority toward internal regime security can also be seen in the outcomes of the limited cooperation found in the GCC. Though scholars argue that the GCC has not come close to achieving the goals of its founding charter, it has managed to achieve a high level of cooperation on internal security (Legrenzi, 2011: 1). Furthermore, internal security has been overlooked as a domain for trusting relationships, given the extensive focus on issues of distrust with respect to external security otherwise found in the literature.…”

“…There are therefore very few institutional hedges against the potential defection of GCC states from these norms. But as Heard-Bey (2006: 218) put it, “what the GCC is lacking in Brussels-style clout, it makes up it for in the strengths of its common bonds, which encompass the ruling houses and the ordinary nationals in these countries.” These social norms include the focus on informal mediation, consultation, advice-making, and consensus (Heard-Bey, 2006: 209, 219; Legrenzi, 2011: 42, 88; Wright, 2006: 83). The desirability of consensus ( ijma ), particularly, is rooted in informal political traditions of Eastern Arabia and Sunni Islamic jurisprudence (Heard-Bey, 2006: 218; Legrenzi, 2008: 88), and is institutionalized within the decision-making processes, effectively giving every state a veto (Ulrichsen, 2018: 50).…”

Gulf Cooperation Council: Arabian Gulf Cooperation Continues Defense Forces (Peninsula Shield Force)

“…72 Therefore, the issue of the rise of terrorism in the region forms a significant aspect of increased concerns regarding the improvement of the PSF. 73 Recently, the Arab world, including the GCC, has been experiencing increased terrorism and extremism. These issues are a direct threat to the stability and security of the member-states.…”