I have stated last week that I will write a few paragraphs this week on the solution to make the Gulf Arab region a much safer place. Of course, today it is indeed considered one of the most stable regions in the world, but right outside, on the periphery, is Yemen, Syria, and Iraq. Without doubt, Iran is a major player in those three countries, so how to go about resolving this issue?

Let me first state two things before I move on. First, like it or not, in the future, nuclear bombs (WMDs-Weapons of Mass Destructions) are going to be easily available to both state and non-state actors. However hard we try to get rid of those weapons, those who want them will someday get access to them, whether we like it or not. This is how technology is developing.

Second, there is no way that a complete and detailed answer with proper academic references can be stated in 7 to 10 paragraphs. I will skip a lot, but hopefully through email or messaging exchanges I can provide the necessary if you would require.

For simplicity’s sake, there are two general things to do, one for us to do to ourselves, and the other is related to Iran. Let’s start with Iran.

So what is being circulated these days is the news about the nuclear deal between America and Iran. Presumably, Iran would be willing to deal with its nuclear program for civilian use under total transparency. What this supposedly would do is make sure Iran is continuing its nuclear program without attempts to develop a nuclear bomb, which the world is rejecting and fearing. I didn’t look into all the details of this agreement, but what is upsetting is that it is missing something extremely crucial, which is to stop interfering and instigating instability in the nearby region.

The main problem with the Iranian nuclear deal is that it caused strained relationships between America and its Arab allies. So why didn’t the deal include ‘good regional conduct’ is something that makes me extremely skeptical, very skeptical.

Just in Bahrain, the amount of explosives seized from the border coming from Iran is enough to wipe out our capital. America has signed a deal with a state-sponsor of terrorism. But that’s them, and we shouldn’t blame our problems at others, because we have much work to do as well.

In the realism school, which is more like how the world is acting today, smaller countries are much less powerful when negotiating a deal. They have much less to leverage and offer in return, thus, things most likely never turn out to be exactly the way they want it to be. Let us not kid ourselves, we are small yet very important to the world politics because of where we exist in relative terms to Saudi Arabia.

I am not stating facts on Bahrain, I am referring to the whole Arab Gulf Countries, all six of us. We have it in us, but we need to find it, we know that deep inside we are warriors, but today military might is not the solution to power and strength. We need to understand that the chip of leveraging power is to become economically powerful, educationally strong, and independently successful. These are the pillars that would sustain military strength, or else, we will continue selling oil in order to get cash, in order to buy weapons. What we need to do is sell oil, invest economically, academically, and scientifically in order to prosper and manufacture our defense systems by ourselves.

Even if we don’t want to assimilate politically, there are many other methods that we can integrate for our collective success. Throw the law books aside if they stand in our way, and let us sit and think together on how to tie or societies together, in order to come out stronger and wiser. The first thing that needs to happen is labor mobility, let the private and public sectors both compete on attracting white and blue collar jobs without those silly “Saudization, Bahrainization, Emaratization, or whateverization…”

Today, we are not prepared to face the world, while the world is already planning to seize our resources. We are in a boat together my fellow Gulf Arab citizens, in order to survive, we need to integrate and unite. It is difficult, almost impossible, but not impossible. We are not strong, and unfortunately, we are the ones standing in our own way of becoming stronger.

Categories: Politics

Tags: bahrain, Iran, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, UAE