Crisis within the Persian Gulf

Introduction

 In the recent months, there has been a crisis going on within the Persian Gulf. Four neighboring countries are cutting off Qatar: Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bahrain, and Egypt. They have even gone to the lengths of sending the Qatari officials stationed in those countries back to Qatar. The reason these four countries are calling a “Diplomatic break” with Qatar is because Qatar is supposedly supporting terrorist groups as well as being too friendly with Iran, which is an enemy of the Gulf. This means that Qatar has to be very careful with their next actions and decide which is more important to them; supporting these people, or publicly standing up against those groups and showing their allegiance to the four countries who were formerly their allies.

 In order to address this problem successfully, Qatar will need to understand that the four countries are border countries, which makes it Qatar’s best interest to settle the problem before it gets too big to repair. If they decide they would rather support groups in which these countries oppose there could be more serious conflicts to come. Qatar will need to do more than just deny the claims, but it seems they will need to take further actions in order to prove their true allegiance. In this study, the dependent variable is the fact that these countries have cut off Qatar, while the independent variable is Qatar’s upcoming actions and whether or not they will make strides to prove they do not support these extremists and terrorists.

 Henderson, Christian. 2017. “Qatari Domestic and Regional Policy.” In Reassessing Order and Disorder in the Middle East: Regional Imbalance or Disintegration? ed. Robert Mason. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.

This source discusses the in depth domestic politics that is happening in the Middle East. The author mentions different policies that are going on, and how they are impacting the regional balance of power. The data attempts to decide whether the current crisis that is going on in the Middle East is a temporary imbalance or if it is the start of a long-term ordeal. This source does a great job at providing background information about the Middle East and current policies, as well as, explains different countries ideologies about certain aspects of politics. This source will be a great help for my research because it provides in depth information about some of the countries involved in the Qatar Blockade, and provide insight on how their relations may have changed. Also, this source is very centered on Qatar, and their domestic policy, which has been the topic of my research.

Naheem, Mohammed A. 2017. “Legitimacy of the 2017 GCC Crisis and Qatar’s AML Framework.” Journal of Money Laundering Control 24 (2): 118-35

This source explains the information behind many different countries in the Gulg Coast who cut ties with Qatar financially. In addition to this, they explore different claims by countries regarding Qatar’s involvement in supporting extremists and terrorist organizations. This source also discusses the goals of the countries in the Middle East to reduce the financing of terrorist organizations. Most importantly, the author analyzes the Qatar financial situation, which will provide much needed information for my research project. This source is relevant to my research because it is specifically covering the Qatar Blockade that happened a couple months back. Of course, blocking off a country completely will impact their financial situation and this speaks to how this incident has affected Qatar. I plan to use the information about how Qatar and these other countries will progress on the issue of reducing the support for terrorism, and also making more visible efforts towards combating terrorism.

UN News Centre. 2017.“World must unite in fight against terrorism, Qatar urges leaders at UN Assembly.” September 19.

One article that I found was posted on the United Nation’s website and covered a speech by the Amir of Qatar. In this speech, the Amir talked about how Qatar needs to halt the initiation of extremism and terrorism and that sometimes governments have no choice but to cooperate in the security confrontations with terrorism. He also mentions that the government will be addressed the root causes of terrorism. The article mentions the blockade that was imposed on Qatar and that while taking a stance towards publicly stating they are not supporting terrorism, the Amir also wanted people to not tie any religions into terrorism and remember that they are individual actions not religious actions. This will help my research by providing me with information about what Qatar is doing to address their position in this issue. The article has words directly from the Amir of Qatar, which shows legitimacy, and that what he is saying is on behalf of Qatar. Part of the research of my study is what Qatar will respond with and this provides insight to that question.

Sharma, Richa. 2017. “The Vicious Gulf Crisis: What Does it Mean for India?” Center for Air Power Studies. (57): 17.

This article recapped the recent events going on in the gulf. It gave the audience the background information of what is going on in Qatar and then tied in how it is effecting economies of other nations outside of the gulf. In particular, the relations with India and how it is directly affecting their economy and how it will only get worse. India imports about 90% of its natural gas from Qatar. Also, Qatar shares its defense and energy sector with Qatar (Sharma, 2017). This source provides an inside account of how this crisis is affecting other countries than Qatar. This is great for my research because it provides me with information that directly links this crisis with other countries that may not be covered through this crisis. In addition to this, it will help understand that this crisis is bigger than just the area it is located in.