Gulf monarchies soaring from ashes of Arab Spring
07 December, 2020
Ten years on, the turmoil of the Arab Springtime which shook the oil-rich Gulf states has left an extremely diverse legacy, emboldening and empowering their conservative monarchies.
The collapse or decline of traditional Middle East powers like Syria and Egypt has allowed the Gulf to establish itself as the center East's new centre of gravity.
And the Gulf countries have seized the initiative, accelerating the transformation of their societies, building futuristic metropolises and breaking conventions with diplomatic initiatives, including establishing ties with Israel.
"The weakening of traditional Arab centers of power because of the Arab Spring... has made the Gulf, for the very first time in modern record, the center of Arab electricity," stated Bader al-Saif, associate professor of history at Kuwait University.
The Arab world was convulsed by popular uprisings starting in 2011, with street protests in several countries against despised regimes.
Egypt and Tunisia's dictators were toppled. However the groundbreaking wave descended into bloody civil battle in Syria, Libya and Yemen.
In Egypt, the army retook power in 2013, accompanied by a brutal crackdown. Cairo, previously the Arab world's cultural capital, became a byword for abuses and grinding poverty.
Once feared and powerful, Syria together with Iraq -- shattered simply by the US invasion of 2003 -- became synonymous with devastating conflict, refugee camps, and foreign meddling.
The Gulf was not entirely spared the tumult seen elsewhere, with protests rocking Oman and Bahrain -- the latter deposit principally with Saudi assistance.
But the chaos somewhere else threw the soaring wealth and prosperity of the United Arab Emirates and Qatar into stark pain relief as expats were lured by glittering skyscrapers and lavish tax-free packages.
The Arab Planting season was an "eye-opener" for the Gulf nations, close partners of Washington because they witnessed the US inaction when Egypt's and Bahrain's regimes were threatened.
"They realized they had a need to take matters within their personal hands and that there is no continuous security assurance from the U.S.," Saif told AFP.
The Arab Planting season was simply the watershed moment, he said, adding that Gulf countries had recently been eyeing greater affect well before 2011.
"The Arab Planting season didn't start this development, it accelerated and brought it out into the open up," said Abdelkhaleq Abdallah, a good politics professor in the UAE where, along with Qatar, the style was most noticeable.
Fearing that 2011 uprisings may reach their kingdoms, the Gulf Cooperation Council reached out to Jordan and Morocco giving them financial support to help fund community reforms in a bid to maintain stability, observers said.
Saudi had the best financial firepower as the world's leading essential oil exporter, and effect among Muslims whose two holiest sites are actually in the kingdom.
Nonetheless it was Qatar that "turned the Arab Spring to its gain", Abdallah said, taking part in an outsized spend the rolling coverage of happenings by its Al Jazeera broadcaster, accompanied by the empowerment of Islamist actions, notably in Tunisia and Egypt.
The Emirates benefited too, presenting itself as a regional safe haven and attracting investment to Dubai, one of the country's seven emirates which was badly hit by 2010's economical crisis.
While other Middle East players faced instability and poverty, Qatar prepared for the 2022 World Cup, the Emirates sent an astronaut into space, and Riyadh held the G20 presidency.
As their influence grew, the trio vied for supremacy, explained Emma Soubrier, a researcher at the Arab Gulf Claims Institute in Washington.
In 2017, different Arab nations, virtually all prominently Saudi Arabia and the UAE, trim ties with Qatar accusing it of backing Islamist motions and fomenting unrest through Al Jazeera. Doha possesses always denied the charges.
In Libya, Abu Dhabi supported strongman Khalifa Haftar against the forces of the U.N.-accepted government which it accused of colluding with Islamists and obtaining support from Turkey and Qatar.
Soubrier said the intervention, without the backing of the UN, marked a good turning point.
"A message was sent to (their) Western companions that the Emirates were at this time a regional power with the capacity of guaranteeing their passions, by army strikes if important," she said.
Saudi Arabia has been involved with its own overseas entanglement since 2015, leading a coalition in Yemen including the Emirates that supports government forces against Huthi rebels supported by Riyadh's arch-rival, Iran.
The Gulf in addition has gone against the grain diplomatically, regarding Bahrain and the UAE which normalised ties with Israel in September -- upending years of Arab boycott.
Unlike the region's former powers, and contemporary Qatar, the UAE and Saudi have rejected the notions of "pan-Arabism and pan-Islamism" revitalized by the Arab Spring, according to Saudi researcher Eman Alhussein.
"Nationalism is not special to the Gulf place as it provides been gaining momentum around the world," said the expert, adding that raw vitality was now more important than sentiments in the fabled "Arab road".
Source: japantoday.com