• The Gulf monarchies after the Arab Spring
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The Gulf monarchies after the Arab Spring

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This book applies an original theoretical framework to unpack the threat perceptions and strategic calculus driving the behaviour of the Gulf monarchies, which emerged after the Arab Spring as majo...
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  • 20 January 2026
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The post-Arab Spring collapse of decades-old regimes inaugurated a decade of re-shaping for the geopolitical order in the Middle East and North Africa region. A multipolar disorder ensued, solidified by the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Amid general bewilderment, the small monarchies of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) spent the decade between 2011 and 2022 trying to re-shape regional equilibria as protagonists. This book applies an original theoretical framework to unpack the threat perceptions and strategic calculus driving the behaviour of these new impactful regional players. Six chapters look at the six GCC monarchies individually. The author challenges commonly held narratives and goes beyond attention-grabbing headlines and thus provides reading keys to the past, present and future of policy-making in the Gulf monarchies, middle powers destined to play an oversized role in the new multipolar world.
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Price: £25.00
Pages: 216
Publisher: Manchester University Press
Imprint: Manchester University Press
Series: Identities and Geopolitics in the Middle East
Publication Date: 20 January 2026
ISBN: 9781526195562
Format: Paperback
BISACs:

POLITICAL SCIENCE / World / Middle Eastern, POLITICAL SCIENCE / International Relations / General, POLITICAL SCIENCE / Security (National & International), International relations, Armed conflict
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'Provides new insights on this ten-year period that deeply changed the internal dynamics of Arab politics.'
—Bustan: The Middle East Book Review (Vol. 15, No. 2, 2024)

'Those of us who work in the field are often at a loss to keep up with events, never mind analyze them in a comprehensive, scholarly manner. Fortunately, Cinzia Bianco has stepped into the breach with a magisterial, deeply researched work that delves into the regional events while at the same time surveying the scholarly literature of the region and of conflict in general.'
—David Des Roches, Middle East Journal

'In a work of solid scholarship, Bianco offers a thoroughly researched examination of Persian Gulf monarchies that is empirically rich and is grounded in a robust theoretical framework. For anyone interested in better understanding contemporary international politics in the Persian Gulf, and especially the evolving threat perceptions of the region’s monarchies, this is essential reading.'
—Mehran Kamrava, Georgetown University in Qatar

'The Gulf monarchies after the Arab Spring makes an essential and novel contribution to the growing literature on the international relations of the Gulf. Drawing on deep experience and research, Bianco shows that the GCC states shape their foreign policies through the lens of very distinct threat perceptions rooted in their domestic political conditions, geographic position, broader political ambitions, and ontological security needs. This is an essential guide to some of the key geopolitical actors of the emerging Middle East.
—Marc Lynch, The George Washington University

Cinzia Bianco is a Senior Research Fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations

Introduction
1 The geopolitics of polarisation in the Gulf
2 Theoretical framework
Part I: Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and the UAE: the elusive quest for a security alliance
3 Bahrain
4 Saudi Arabia
5 The United Arab Emirates
Part II: Kuwait and Oman: hedging between security and stability
6 Kuwait
7 Oman
Part III: The centrifugal nature of Qatar’s security
8 Qatar
9 Conclusions