The Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf: Historic Development in the Context of Modern Qatar’s Crisis

Abstract

The article is an attempt to analyze foreign policy, security and economic preconditions of creation of the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf and basic beginnings of its historicaldevelopment. Its appearance became the result of internal, regional and international processes during 70-80 years of the XX century which not only created necessary objective conditions ofappearance of the above-mentioned integration organization in the Arabian peninsula but also defined its main particularities, resistance ability and vulnerable points. The 1979 Iran Islamic revolution,signing of the Camp David Accords, the beginning of the Iran-Iraq war, the USSR aggression in Afghanistan played a decisive role in the appearance of the Gulf Cooperation Council. The article researched the results and particularities of four periods in the development of the above-mentioned integration organization. The article pays special role to understanding of basic objective and subjective factors of the contemporary Qatar crisis and ways of its solving. The article also found out that the main reason that lead to the Qatar crisis was sharpening of serious acute competition between Saudi Arabia and Iran in the context of the Middle East region. The conclusion is made that the last 38-th summit of the Gulf Cooperation Council “freezed” for some time contemporary state of relations with Qatar, outlined principle directions of deepening of integration processes inside the Gulf Cooperation Council as well as strengthened the role of its nucleus – union of Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates.