The emergence of the contemporary inter-state
system in the Gulf, and of the antagonisms underlying it, can be seen as a
product of the imposition of modern forms of state formation, and of the
nationalist or revolutionary ideologies associated with it, upon the
pre-existing mosaic of peoples, languages and beliefs in this area of West
Asia.
The initial territorial divisions were a result of imperial state
formation from the fifteenth to the early twentieth centuries. The boundary
between Safavis and Ottomans was the site of substantial wars in the sixteenth
to eighteenth centuries but was gradually stabilised through treaties,
beginning with that of Zuhab (Qasr-i Shirin) in 1639, and culminating in the
Treaty of Erzurum of 1847, while that between the two encroaching modern
empires, the Russian and the British, was gradually drawn from the late
eighteenth century onwards: the Romanovs took Iranian territory in the
Transcaucasus, while the British pushed against Iran's eastern frontier,
through India (now Pakistan) and Afghanistan, and from the late nineteenth
century also encroached on the Arab territories lying on the southern side of
the Gulf.
The dominant
power in the Gulf was neither Arab nor Persian, but Britain, in formal control
of Iraq and much of the Peninsula's coastline, from Kuwait to Aden. The
strategic situation was, therefore, one in which Britain maintained its military
and administrative dominance: local states, Iran included, conducted their
relations largely with Britain, and other major powers. There was very little
contact of substance between the regional states. Iran and Saudi Arabia
formally recognised each other. At first, however, Iran refused to recognise
Iraq, since Baghdad refused to provide suitable guarantees to Persians living
in its territory.
Where there was upheaval, nationalist and
social, in these states it had little to do with other regional peoples, and
much to do with external, imperial, domination.
From the perspective of the mid-1990s the Gulf
would appear to be one of the potentially most unstable regions of the world,
given the combination of economic resources, militarized tension, and internal
political instability. Yet beyond this evident instability it is worth
examining in what the difficulties consist. As far as international questions
are concerned, one can identify at least six areas of tension: territory,
ethnic and religious minorities, oil, arms races, conflicts in foreign policy
orientation, and interference in each other's internal affairs.
Arabs and Persians Beyond the
Geopolitics of the Gulf
To
the reader, following two of our previous posts of this series about
TERRITORIAL DISPUTES:
- What are the issues at stakes in this a territorial dispute?
- Which remedy could be used to solve this particular territorial dispute?
For
reference to these questions see:
Jorge Emilio Núñez
Twitter: @London1701
06th November 2018
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