Middle East Dossier

In the third podcast, Mr Doug Brooks, the founder of the International Stability Operations Association (ISOA) elaborates on the role of the US private military sector in the Middle East and beyond.

Dr Mark C Thompson explores the effects of socio-economic development and changing societal norms on Young men in Saudi Arabia, diving into phenomena like modernisation, socio-economic liberalisation, and the increasing role of Saudi women in society.

In contrast to the conventional wisdom that hostility between Iran and Saudi Arabia is inevitable, Dr Ibrahim Fraihat takes a critical but constructive approach to the reformation of conflict strategies between the two countries.

Amid the Covid-19 pandemic, practitioners of Tablighi Jamaat, a transnational Islamic piety movement, continued their mass gatherings called Ijtimah. Taking reference from his extensive fieldwork with Pakistani Tablighi, Dr Arsalan Khan outlines how a ritualised form of face-to-face preaching, or dawat, creates a distinct pious sociality based on what he calls the “ethics of hierarchy”.

The Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries has recently finalised a production cut of nearly 10 million barrels of oil due to the impact from the coronavirus pandemic. In this event, Dr Fereidun Fesharaki discusses the grim economic outlook for the Gulf Cooperation Council countries and its implications for net oil-importing Asian countries.

In this podcast, Mr Raffaello Pantucci will talk about the risks and threats posed by returning foreign fighters.

Dr Kristian Ulrichsen, author of Qatar and the Gulf Crisis, elaborates on the implications of the Qatar blockade, which was implemented three years ago. The isolation of Qatar from its Gulf neighbours may have had limited successes, due to a tense political–economic climate and the decisions to act according to international pressures as opposed to the GCC's regional mechanisms.

The gradual shift in the global economic order, which is becoming increasingly apparent over the last decade, has re-oriented the contours of the Gulf–Asia relations. The rise of Asia and the Gulf, itself a part of Asia, led to a shift and restructuring of the global economy. The Gulf “Look East” policy coincided with some Asian countries’ “Look West” policy. Will this global economic shift continue? Are current crises like the Covid-19 pandemic, the consequent fall in oil prices and the global economic downturn bound to alter this trajectory and interest between the Gulf region and Asia? To what extent will the US–China cold war affect this shift? What do all of these mean for the future Gulf–Asia relations?

Speakers
Professor Anoush Ehtesami
Professor of International Relations
Durham University

Dr Wu Bingbing
Deputy Director
Institute of Arab–Islamic Culture
Peking University

Dr Li-Chen Sim
Assistant Professor
Zayed University

Dr Shareefa Al-Adwani
Assistant Professor
American University of Kuwait

Dr Satoru Nakamura
Visiting Scholar
Gulf Research Center
Qatar University

 

Image caption: Photo by Roman Logov on Unsplash

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In this podcast, we talk with Mr Liu Qing (director of international business development and management division, Huaxin Zhongan Security Group) about the role Chinese private security companies play in the industry.