A Political Economy Of Free Zones In Gulf Arab States

This is the first book-length empirical study of free zones (FZs) in Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries. The volume systematically illustrates the development processes behind FZs in Gulf Arab states and assesses the impact of these commercial entities on regional integration, global trade and investment trends, and the Gulf’s foreign relations. In the process, the work maps how economic strategies involving FZs evolve alongside varying levels of resource availability and state capacity on a local level while also revealing how development paths in Gulf Arab states are linked to regional and global accumulation circuits. FZ development is an under-examined topic in the wider literature on the Gulf. The empirical findings and theoretical implications of the work therefore offer an original contribution to prevailing political economy discussions concerning the Gulf region.

This book analyzes the recent development of Gulf capitalism through to the aftermath of the 2008 economic crisis. Situating the Gulf within the evolution of capitalism at a global scale, it presents a novel theoretical interpretation of this important region of the Middle East political economy.

Kristian Coates Ulrichsen documents the startling rise of the Arab Gulf States as regional powers with international reach and provides a definitive account of how they have become embedded in the global system of power, politics, and policy-making.

A Political Economy of the Middle East is the most comprehensive analysis of developments in the political economy of the region over the past several decades, examining the interaction of economic development processes, state systems and policies, and social actors in the Middle East. The fourth edition, with new authors Melani Cammett and Ishac Diwan, has been thoroughly revised, with two new introductory chapters that provide an updated framework with which to understand and study the many changes in demography, education, labor markets, urbanization, water and agriculture, and international labor migration in the recent years. The new edition also includes: a new chapter that charts the political economy of the Gulf states and, in particular, the phenomenal growth of oil economies; a new chapter on the rise of "crony capitalism;" and increased coverage of the changes in civil society and social movements in the region, including an exploration of the causes, dynamics, consequences, and aftermath of the Arab uprisings.

This volume explores the challenges to diversification in Gulf countries, which can no longer rely on profits from hydrocarbons to fund national expenditures. It elaborates on the problem of weak institutions, lack of coordination between policy makers and executors, limited investment in research and development, and a workforce that is too poorly skilled to compete in the private sector. In addition to analyzing issues in areas such as education, labor, business, and trade, the contributors underscore the importance of using global best practices to overcome fundamental weaknesses in the Gulf Cooperative Council's economic structure that limit opportunities for economic diversification. This is the second volume in Economic Diversification in the Gulf Region.

This insightful research collection examines the internal and external transformation of the Arab Gulf states and their repositioning within the global order. It explores the interlocking challenges of transition toward post-rentier structures of governance and assesses the domestic, regional and global implications. A multi-level approach begins with sections on domestic political and economic reform and the reformulation of domestic agendas to reflect new issues such as climate-change. Subsequent sections cover the evolution of regional security agendas, new trends in foreign policy and the Arab Gulf states' rapid emergence as global actors and provide a frank portrayal of this dynamic region.

This book explores the process of policymaking and implementation in the finance, energy and security sectors in the United Arab Emirates. It looks at the role of informal advisory networks in a nascent private sector, federal politics, and historical ties in foreign relations.

This book examines the political, economic and social transformation of the six member-states of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and the ways in which these states are both shaping, and being reshaped by, the processes of globalisation. Adopting a multidisciplinary approach, the volume combines thematic chapters focusing on issues such as globalisation, nationalism and identity, political thinking, and economic diversification and redistributive policymaking with empirical chapters studying specific aspects of reform and change: the emergence of governing markets the rise of Sovereign Wealth Funds Islamic Finance the relationship between energy and sustainability trends in foreign aid donorship, strategic and foreign policy formulation. Contributions from experts in the field provide cutting-edge snapshots of a region in flux and collectively offer a roadmap of its repositioning in the global order, examining the interaction between global processes and internal dynamics of change and resistance that inject new dimensions into debates over the loci of local and global transformations and the manner in which each plays off the other. Situating the Gulf States firmly within their global twenty-first century context, this book will hold particular appeal to theorists of globalisation as well as to scholars of comparative politics, international political economy and area studies.