Research Library

The Arab Gulf is protecting its own interests by pushing to keep fossil fuels in the mix. But more crucially, its agenda is in line with the world’s economic growth and development goals, writes Osamah Alsayegh.

Abu Dhabi has shown increasing discomfort with OPEC’s actions in recent years. Do diverging interests spell departure? Fellows Jim Krane, Kristian Coates Ulrichsen and Mark Finley weigh the risks and opportunities of an OPEC exit by the UAE.

Kuwait lags behind the other members of the Gulf Cooperation Council in its progress toward sustainable energy targets. Its pro-rentier democracy is slowing it down, writes visiting scholar Osamah Alsayegh.

This paper models the oil strategy of Gulf Arab states under three future energy transition scenarios. Under the most ambitious scenario, the region would have to decouple its oil revenues from its economic growth and could face significant economic and political consequences.

How durable is the Saudi-Russian relationship, and what are its implications for the longstanding energy-for-security arrangement between Saudi Arabia and the U.S.?

Morocco’s Party of Justice and Development offers the authors a rare opportunity to evaluate an Islamist party’s approach to the economy that can counter its own policies.

This research paper examines how underlying shifts in security dynamics in the Persian Gulf may evolve as regional states respond to the perception of receding U.S. leadership by further diversifying security relationships and internationalizing what until the 2010s had been a solidly Western-centric web of partnerships. DOI: https://doi.org/10.25613/n8xe-hj20

Recent developments in the oil kingdoms of the Middle East demonstrate that rentier governments are engaging their citizens with energy policymaking in ways that do not follow rentier state theory, writes fellow Jim Krane.

Who speaks for Islam and who holds religious authority in the Middle East? These questions strike at the heart of the relationship between religion and politics in the Muslim world, for whoever can legitimately claim religious authority has an opportunity to shape the extent to which religion is politicized in the region. Our study examines this issue by identifying the channels of influence between religious leaders who claim to hold Islamic authority and individual Muslims across the region. The findings depict a complex religious space in the Middle East that reflects its citizens’ nuanced approach toward religion and the religion-politics relationship.

A newly released study from the Project on Middle East Political Science at George Washington University includes a contribution from fellow Jim Krane on subsidy reform and tax increases in the Middle East.