The Search for Gulf Security: The Politics of Collective Defense

Abstract

Anxious to prevent the recurrence of a crisis similar to that of 1990-91, both the Gulf and the Western states perceived a need to establish an ongoing security arrangement in the Gulf. The impetus for trying to reach a comprehensive arrangement came from the Arab Gulf states, within the framework of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) — the winners in the Gulf War and the leaders of the anti-Iraqi coalition. The incentive to establish a comprehensive defense settlement in the post-1990-91 Gulf War era came from the Arab Gulf states, which considered themselves the victims of the Iraqi invasion and the potential targets of future Iraqi aggression. Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, the GCC states most vulnerable to an Iraqi invasion, opposed reliance on large permanent Egyptian and Syrian forces, a view apparently accepted by the other Gulf states. Iraq's failure to change its hostile image, in the perception of the GCC states, discounted any possibility of regional cooperation with it.