After the Sheikhs: The Coming Collapse of the Gulf Monarchies - Hardcover

Christopher M. Davidson

3.3

402 ratings by Goodreads

9781849041898: After the Sheikhs: The Coming Collapse of the Gulf Monarchies

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 184904189X ISBN 13: 9781849041898

Publisher: C Hurst & Co Publishers Ltd, 2012

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The Gulf monarchies (Saudi Arabia and its five smaller neighbours: the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, and Bahrain) have long been governed by highly autocratic and seemingly anachronistic regimes. Yet despite bloody conflicts on their doorsteps, fast-growing populations, and powerful modernising and globalising forces impacting on their largely conservative societies, they have demonstrated remarkable resilience. Obituaries for these traditional monarchies have frequently been penned, but even now these absolutist, almost medieval, entities still appear to pose the same conundrum as before: in the wake of the 2011 Arab Spring and the fall of incumbent presidents in Egypt, Tunisia, and Libya, the apparently steadfast Gulf monarchies have, at first glance, re-affirmed their status as the Middle East s only real bastions of stability. In this book, however, noted Gulf expert Christopher Davidson contends that the collapse of these kings, emirs, and sultans is going to happen, and was always going to. While the revolutionary movements in North Africa, Syria, and Yemen will undeniably serve as important, if indirect, catalysts for the coming upheaval, many of the same socio-economic pressures that were building up in the Arab republics are now also very much present in the Gulf monarchies. It is now no longer a matter of if but when the West s steadfast allies fall. This is a bold claim to make but Davidson, who accurately forecast the economic turmoil that afflicted Dubai in 2009, has an enviable record in diagnosing social and political changes afoot in the region.

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Review:

'An unsentimental story of hard-nosed political calculation, conspicuous consumption, opaque budgets and sovereign wealth funds [...] an important account of prospects for the Gulf region.' --- The Guardian

'Mr Davidson is one of the most knowledgeable academics writing about the region. He sets out his scenario of monarchical doom with authoritative and often riveting detail. ... Plainly he is right that each of the monarchs has cause to worry.' --The Economist

'What is the secret of the Gulf monarchies' survival? There are numerous reasons. The support of Western powers, oil wealth and an effective secret police are among them. But in this exceptionally argued book, Christopher Davidson concentrates on the prime reason: the Gulf monarchies enjoy considerable legitimacy from their populations.' --- Ziauddin Sardar, The Independent

From the Author:

CHRISTOPHER DAVIDSON is Reader in Politics at the University of Durham and the author of several definitive books on the Gulf, including Abu Dhabi: Oil and Beyond, Dubai: The Vulnerability of Success and Power and Politics in the Persian Gulf Monarchies, all of which are published by Hurst.

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