Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC): towards Economic Integration or Dissolution?

“The Gulf Cooperation Council, is a regional, intergovernmental, political and economic union. This council consists of six nations which are, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman, United Arab Emirates and Bahrain. With the intention of fostering integration and interconnection among its member states, the GCC was established in 1976 and its charter was signed in 1981 in Abu Dhabi. (YOUSEF, 2022)

Questions:

 1- Although GCC has formally created since 1981, it hasn’t moved towards Economic Union such as (European Union, AEC asean econimic integration)?

2- Although GCC member’s states have several similarities among them (such as State system, Massive Financial Resources, Large Investments Authorities and Sovereign funds, Religious and Cultures) they couldn’t upgrade GCC as a regional organization.

Given the questions above, lets firstly look at these states’ similarities; they share the same way of governing such as constitutional monarchies or absolute monarchies. Also, they share the same religion, language and economical goals. The differences are minor as currently after some of the issues that passed between some states; these are political goals, currencies, food, clothing styles etc.The GCC had the conflicts of 2014 and 2017, that marked and pin pointed how the GCC operated and was put to the test. With these conflicts, we saw how each state acted unilaterally and in a divided manner. Qatar the victim, has reached out to the GCC Commercial Arbitration Center located in Bahrain (which acts independently from all six member states) to resolve the issues that emerged in the economic and political field, but no responses were taken. Moreover, the dynamic of the GCC lacks, some characteristics that the European Union actually follows. For instance, the EU has institutions that are responsible for drafting policies and taking decisions and other sectors that all drive the EU progress (EU Court of Justice, EU Commission and European Economic and Social Committee) (Nature, 2021). In the GCC there are no written commitments to resolve disputes in case of disagreements and opinions of national parliaments and governments are not taken into account. Therefore, economic integration in the Gulf Cooperation Council faces challenges. Realists argue that countries in the Gulf Cooperation Council are guided by their own national interests, leading to power struggles and discord. For example, the previous conflict between Qatar and neighboring countries such as Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates shows a pragmatic mindset that prioritizes each country's interests even at the expense of regional cooperation. (YOUSEF, 2022)Furthermore, given these unilateral approaches by states after the conflicts that arose in 2017, and also after the Al-Ula meeting in KSA, that mentions, that all states should not interfere with the internal affairs of the states (Barany, 2021). That being said, post 2014 and 2017, the GCC became more divided on the political and economic fields. Realism is a theory that best describes this unilateral inward closing characteristic that we are witnessing currently. We can see that with all the similarities these states have, we still lack the cooperation and integration that the EU has.

 Bibliography

 YOUSEF, T. M. (2022). The Gulf Cooperation Council at Forty: Risk and Opportunity in a Changing World. Brookings Institution Press. . JSTOR.

 Barany, Z. (2021). Military Diplomacy: The GCC and Foreign Military Relations', Armies of Arabia: Military Politics and Effectiveness in the Gulf. online edn, Oxford Academic.

 Nature, S. (2021). The European Union and the Gulf Cooperation Council: Towards a New Path. Palgrave Macmillan.

• Note Taking Matrix for Research Question
• Note Taking Matrix for Research Question
• The Role of Women in ISIS and Al Qaeda
• Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC): towards Economic Integration or Dissolution?
• International Trade Negotiations and its Process
• Principles of Sustainment on Operational Reach and Prolonged Endurance
• Security in Latin America
• Brazil Electrol System
• Research Proposal
• Political Science