Post-Cold War Security in the GCC Region: Continuity and Change in the 1990s

Abstract

If there is a fundamental tenet that has characterized post-Cold War security posturing the world over, it is that of uncertainty: incertitude about priorities in an increasingly ill-defined international system structure, by which attempts are made to merge security concerns with economic aspirations, with little regard to the distinctness of these tasks. Regional organizations – the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), the European Union (EU), the Association of South-east Asian Nations (ASEAN) – have achieved unprecedented levels of integration for contemporary times, but are still woefully unable to forge unified foreign policies. In the 1990s, tenuous commitments from the world’s only contender for superpower status – the United States – have replaced East-West balancing games. Contrary to hopes and some expectations, the international system is not a more peaceful, less dangerous place in the wake of the Cold War. Ethnic bloodletting, much more basic and dangerous than the political-ideological struggles of the Soviet-American standoff, now account for the majority of the system’s wars. Aggressive grabs for regional power – on the part of Iraq, Serbia and North Korea – present security dilemmas for all states that continue to actively seek stability. It is this lack of overall system definition that has placed sub-regional protagonists in a state of foreign policy discontinuity with widespread repercussions.