The relationship between the United States and its Gulf allies has evolved in important ways since President Jimmy Carter’s 1980 declaration of American “vital interests” in the Persian Gulf — the “Carter Doctrine” — and while many circumstances have changed, the rationale for maintaining U.S. protection for Gulf oil supplies remains strong, authors Gabriel Collins and Jim Krane write in this paper.
What happens when Saudi Arabia, the world’s swing producer of oil, rejects its traditional market-balancing role? The job falls to American shale oil producers, which, initial data show, appear to be assuming the Saudi role.
There is a curious imbalance in energy markets in the Persian Gulf region: Five of the six Gulf monarchies exhibit shortages in domestic supply of natural gas. Meanwhile, Qatar holds the world's third-largest conventional reserves and is the world's No. 2 gas exporter. Why is Qatar, given its enormous resources and relatively small domestic needs, unwilling to supply gas sufficient to meet its neighbors' demand?
Equity capital flows into microfinance have been increasing for many years. Despite this growth, the vast majority of equity investments are still made in the form of private placements, as there are only three publicly traded microfinance institutions. The difficulty in accessing private data and the scarcity of publicly listed entities have limited the scope of the market research available to equity investors in microfinance institutions.