Evolving Empire: America's "Emirates" Strategy in the Persian Gulf

Abstract

This article examines U.S. policy in the Persian Gulf and juxtaposes American efforts in Iraq with those in the Gulf Cooperation Council states. As the U.S.-led effort to pacify and democratize Iraq continues to founder and with civil war underway in parts of the country, Washington pursues another imperial strategy in the Persian Gulf better suited to American security preferences and more likely to succeed, at least in the short term. In pursuing an “emirates” strategy, Washington seeks to indulge its historic preference for an informal empire in the Gulf that relies on cooperation with pro-American monarchs. While the Bush administration has touted Iraq’s potential to remake the Middle East into a democratic haven, America seems prepared to rely on familiar autocrats to help it tackle terrorists in Southwest Asia and preserve Western access to critical supplies of hydrocarbons should Iraq’s democratic rehabilitation prove unsuccessful.