Dialogues in pandemic politics: COVID-19 and the struggle to re-order relations in the Persian Gulf. Issue 4 (1st November 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Mabon, Simon
• Is Part Of: Global discourse. Volume 10:Issue 4(2020)
• Page Start: 507
• Page End: 515
• Publication Date: 2020-11-01
• Subjects: COVID-19 -- Persian Gulf -- Iran -- UAE -- USA; International relations -- Periodicals; Political science -- Periodicals; Social sciences -- Periodicals; Civilization, Modern -- 21st century -- Periodicals; 320.01
• DOI: 10.1332/204378920X16026088650472
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2326-9995

Abstract

Abstract : Over the past decade, regional politics across the Persian Gulf - and within the GCC in particular - has increasingly been characterised by suspicion and mutual distrust. Predominantly appearing in the guise of tensions between the Arab side of the Gulf on the west and the Iranian side on the east - divisions which are exacerbated by ethnicity, religion, economics, geopolitics, demographics, and geography - are coupled with intra-Arab and intra-GCC tensions about the nature of regional order. Yet at times of crisis, as Michael Barnett (1998) astutely observed, opportunities emerge to reshape the nature of relations. In what follows I reflect on Barnett's Constructivist take to explore the nature of Persian Gulf politics at a regional level. Other contributors to this special issue take a deeper dive into the intricacies of political, social, economic, governance and human rights concerns and, as such, I will largely steer clear of such observations. Instead, I will engage in a broader set of reflections about the nature of regional order and the impact of the pandemic on changing order.