Gulfization of the Middle East Security Complex: The Arab Spring’s Systemic Change

Abstract

The dominant view of the Middle East as a region of disorder is flawed, as order remains despite the chaos. From the mid-1950s to the Arab Spring first movement, a bipolar security system dominated the Gulf Region and the broader Middle East. Competing in this system are two alignments: the status quo and the revisionist. This system survived the Arab Spring revolutionary wave, but the latter also introduced a systemic change in the form of the supremacy of the Gulf parties over the rest. In this chapter, the allocation of the power center from the Levant to the Gulf region with attached power politics is called Gulfization. The implications of Gulfization are far-reaching, as the Gulf issues gain primacy in the region and dictate the future struggle in the Middle East as between two versions of Islamism.