Gause on women in Saudi 21, April 2010
Posted by thegulfblog.com in Saudi Arabia.Tags: Gregory Gause, Saudi Arabia, Women in Saudi, women's rights, Women's rights in Saudi
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Gulf sage Greg Gause has a fantastic article at FP on the changing role of women in Saudi society. The short article is well worth reading but here are a couple of little ‘nuctas’ which I gleaned.
- Yes, KAUST is a great thing but Gause notes that it is so isolated (80 miles from nearest city) from Saudi society and there are so few Saudis there, let alone Saudi women, that its effects are perhaps best measured in decades.
- There was a co-ed crowd at Riyadh’s annual book fair and at the fair for the King Abdullah study abroad fair. Even the religious vice and virtue police were present – at a stall – at the former giving out leaflets. Nevertheless, these are but ‘one off events’.
- Jeddah’s Chamber of Commerce is working on implementing different working times for men and women so they never have to mix.
Gause on the Middle East 20, May 2009
Posted by thegulfblog.com in Middle East.Tags: Egypt, Foreign Affairs, Gregory Gause, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Middle East, Nasser, Old Middle East, Syria
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Gregory Gause has another excellent article, this time in Foreign Affairs discussing the rule of the Middle East. Here’s the key paragraph:
…the new administration needs to remind itself of the rules of the local game — the traditional contest for influence among regional states. It is played out more in political terms than in military ones, although the possibility of violence is never far. The players are the stronger regional powers (Egypt, Iran, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Syria, and Turkey) and the playing fields are the weaker powers (Iraq, Lebanon, and the Palestinian territories) whose governments cannot prevent outsiders from interfering in domestic politics. The tools of influence are money, guns, and ideology — and the scorecard is judged by the political orientations of the weaker states.
By this metric, Iran is doing rather well. In Iraq, its influence is greater than that of any other regional power. Iran’s closest Iraqi ally, the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq, did not do well in recent provincial elections, but Tehran’s ties to the political party of Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki and to the Sadrist movement, a Shia party built around Muqtada al-Sadr — both of which fared better in provincial elections — remain strong. Meanwhile, Hamas, Iran’s longtime client, emerged from this winter’s war against Israeli forces in Gaza bloodied but unbowed, much as Iran’s ally Hezbollah did from its own war with Israel in 2006. Hamas and Hezbollah now dictate the course of politics in the Palestinian territories and Lebanon, respectively — far more so than the central governments controlled by “moderate” Arabs with pro-Western inclinations.
To anyone with a fair knowledge of the Middle East, nothing that Gause says is particularly new. Rarely, however, is swathes of Middle Eastern history, politics, intrigue and modern-day machinations so well summarized.
Article catch up 19, May 2009
Posted by thegulfblog.com in Kuwait, Middle East, Saudi Arabia.Tags: Democracy promotion, Egypt Daily News, Emirates Economist, Gregory Gause, Joseph Nye, Marc Lynch, Saudi Deradicalization, Saudi shia, The National, The Republic of Eastern Arabia
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A few days away from the Internet leaves a veritable mountain to sift through when returning, hence a list of interesting articles over that last few days that I don’t quite have the time to write about in a more extended fashion:
- Greg Gause’s excellent article at the National about the GCC, Iran and US relationship. Summary articles don’t come any better than this.
- Nye in the Egypt Daily News on America’s apparent reconsideration of its democracy promotion campaign.
- Stratfor on the limited success of Saudi’s de-radicalization programme.
- Greg Gause on Marc Lynch’s Foreign Policy blog on the Kuwait elections. Positive as it may well be to have four women elected to parliament, which it indeed is, it does not solve the underlying problems in the country’s system.
- A probably spurious article on Iranian Press TV about the oppression of Saudi’s Shias and their (very) alleged declaration of ‘The Republic of Eastern Arabia’
- A good NYT article discussing Norway’s distinctive character and its sovereign wealth fund that has led it to succeed in today’s troubled financial times. Hat Tip: Emirates Economist.
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