Seeking Stability Amidst Disorder

The Foreign Policies of Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qatar, 2010–20

Tobias Borck

• Publisher: Hurst Publishers
• Year: 2023
• Print ISBN: 9781805260417
• eBook ISBN: 9781805262565
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: National Security
• Index: Politics & International Relations

The 2010s were a decade of transformation and conflict in the Middle East, bookended by the Arab Uprisings and the coronavirus pandemic. Throughout this time, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qatar—the three Arab states with the most ambitious regional policies—declared stability to be their main objective. Yet, rather than being a common denominator, this seemingly shared goal in fact obscured differences between their often-competing agendas.

These three Gulf monarchies all agreed that the Middle East had descended into unprecedented and dangerous instability following the Arab Uprisings. But their assessments diverged on what characterised and drove the unrest. This led each country to formulate different—and at times contradictory—views of how politics should be organised in and between states in the region, and what role external powers should play to build a stable new order.

With no universally accepted definition of stability, this book develops an original analytical framework linking this concept to that of order, and provides a useful lens through which to understand foreign policy in the Gulf. While governments often frame their relations with other states by evoking a joint commitment to stability, Tobias Borck shows that this does not, in itself, imply strategic alignment.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of Abbreviations
• Transliterations and Names
• 1. Introduction: Everyone Wants Stability in the Middle East
• 2. Stability and Order: All in the Eye of the Beholder
• 3. Saudi Arabia’s Perception: Surrounded by 360 Degrees of Threats
• 4. Saudi Arabia’s Conception of Stability: Rectifying Imbalance
• 5. The UAE’s Perception: The Opening of Pandora’s Box
• 6. The UAE’s Conception of Stability: Evolution towards the Emirati Example
• 7. Qatar’s Perception: With the People, against the Counter-Revolution
• 8. Qatar’s Conception of Stability: Security through Inclusiveness
• 9. Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qatar in Comparison: Three Versions of the Region
• 10. Conclusion: Towards a Meaningful Conversation about Stability
• Acknowledgements
• Notes
• Index
• Back Cover