A New Structure For Security, Peace, and Cooperation in the Persian Gulf by Seyed Hossein Musavian

Abstract

Reviewed by: A New Structure For Security, Peace, and Cooperation in the Persian Gulf by Seyed Hossein Musavian Kamal A. Beyoghlow A NEW STRUCTURE FOR SECURITY, PEACE, AND COOPERATION IN THE PERSIAN GULF by Seyed Hossein Musavian., New York: Rowman & Littlefield, 2020, 183 pages. Hardback $120.00. Reviewed by: Kamal A. Beyoghlow, PhD, Prof of Int’l Security, The Elliott School of International Affairs, The George Washington University This book is about a paradise lost and wishful thinking. It laments the passing of better relations in the Persian Gulf between Iran and its Arab neighbors, and argues that the time has come to end the current stalemate and eliminate the ongoing suspicion and hostility between the two camps at loggerheads. The central theme of this book is that given shared historical and cultural struggles of Persian Gulf states there is today a unique opportunity to mend fences in light of the growing reproachment and realignments between select Arab Gulf states such as Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Oman with Israel against Iran. According to the author, his book, A New Structure for Security, Peace, and Cooperation in the Persian Gulf, is a blueprint towards building a new security architecture in the Gulf free from outside superpower and Great Powers competition and interference. The book is a determined appeal to Arab Gulf states to help reshape the structure of the Gulf region in Iran’s image and as a result, the book comes across as an idealistic attempt to fix the deep structural policy and strategic differences currently plaguing the Gulf. The author’s vision for a new security architecture is based on the notion that Gulf security challenges, threats, and vulnerabilities can and must be resolved through Gulf institutional mechanisms alone. The underlying assumptions is that there are indeed Gulf solutions to Gulf security problems. As such, the book may be short on realism. The book is divided into five chapters. The first chapter, entitled “Iran’s Relations with its Arab Neighbors” traces the historical relations between the Gulf states and Iran before and after the Iran Revolution of 1979 through four Iranian presidencies of Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, Mohammad Khatami, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and the current President, Hassan Rouhani. The author, significantly, served as Rafsanjani’s special envoy on Arab Gulf affairs and was tasked with improving relations between Iran [End Page 79] and its immediate Gulf neighbors. This chapter also is a hodgepodge of issues ranging from Iran’s changing domestic dynamics to addressing the historical roots and evolution of Wahabbism in Saudi Arabia to Iranian Shi’a political ideology and, ironically, even to former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein’s decision to go to war with Iran in 1980 and, finally, to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in 1990. Moreover it analyzes energy politics and the inherent original schism between Iran and Saudi Arabia over OPEC oil production quotas, and energy policies and strategies. The gist of this chapter is that although relations between Iran and Arab Gulf states tended at times to be difficult and uncertain (e.g., during Ahmadinejad’s presidency), at other times, such relations were less contentious. The author attributed persistent tensions between Arab Gulf States and Revolutionary Iran to Sunni Arab fears of Shi’a hegemony, but more importantly, to a lack of understanding on the part of Arab Gulf states of Iran’s political system of manageable factionalism within its current ruling elite (p. 25). Chapter 2 outlines the grievances of Iran and Arab Gulf states against each other. Chapter 3 focuses on complex regional issues that hamper cooperation and coordination among Gulf states and assesses former President Trump’s tilt towards Israel against Iran and the subsequent Arab Gulf acquiescence to the Trump administration’s maximum pressure on Iran mostly through economic sanctions at the expense of the Palestinian cause. Chapter 4 is a compilation of disputes among the Arab Gulf states themselves and between the latter and Iran. This chapter also addresses many current tensions including the Saudi-UAE-Bahrain alignment against Qatar as well as the Arab Gulf states’ continuing concern over Iran’s strategy of exporting its style of revolutionary theocracy and subversion to its neighboring Sunni...