The changing role of Gulf-based non-state actors in foreign aid

Abstract

This article examines how non-state actors in Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have engaged in foreign aid historically and against the backdrop of tightening national regulations in each of the four countries. While scholarship has focused on state-linked development funds and aid modalities, the analysis explores the spaces within which Gulf-based non-state actors have operated. The September 11 attacks in 2001 and the Arab Spring upheaval in 2011 altered the parameters of these spaces in country-distinct ways. An opening section differentiates among the types of non-state actors, including charities, humanitarian and other forms of foundations, and private fundraising at individual and communal levels. A second section explores the degree to which non-state actors have the capability to act autonomously from state interests and objectives or whether they have been instrumentalised as tools to increase the legitimacy and effectiveness of state policies. Such an approach can bring pushback, and a third section examines pushback and the ways in which both states and the various non-state groups have evolved over the past two decades. The article ends by asking how generalisable the experience of Gulf-based non-state actors is, given the distinctive political economy within which they have operated.