The Gulf crisis: why the Arab regional order failed

Abstract

Iraq invaded Kuwait, Yezid Sayigh argues, because the rules linking the Arab states in a regional order had broken down into weakness and disarray. He writes that domestic political power structures in the Arab states have determined regional politics, and that the regimes' selfish and divisive policies, aimed at consolidating personal power, have undermined state security and collective regional security. Sayigh argues that 'rentier' politics-whereby rich states used their oil wealth to support allies, purchase the goodwill of rivals and, in effect, bribe sectors of their populations-are a consistent theme of Arab politics since 1975. No solution is in sight to the region's disunity and weakness until core common values emerge again among the Arab states.