Book Reviews : The Turbulent Gulf by Liesl Graz. London: I.B. Tauris, 1990. 256pp. £17.95
| DOI | 10.1177/004711789101000308 |
| Published date | 01 May 1991 |
| Author | Anthony Parsons |
| Date | 01 May 1991 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
281
BOOK
REVIEWS
The
Turbulent
Gulf
by
Liesl
Graz.
London:
I.B.
Tauris,
1990.
256pp.
£17.95
Liesl
Graz
is
an
experienced
journalist,
particularly
knowledgeable
about
the
Gulf.
She
has
written
a
valuable
book
for
the
general
reader.
My
only
quarrel
with
her
is
over
the
title.
In
fact,
until
Saddam
Hussein’s
invasion
of
Kuwait
(which
the
author
just
manages
to
cover
in
a
Note
dated
7
September
1990)
the
Gulf
states
have
been
the
reverse
of
turbulent
compared
to
the
rest
of the
Arab
world,
indeed
the
rest
of
the
world
as
a
whole.
The
smaller
countries,
namely
Kuwait,
Bahrain,
Qatar,
the
seven
components
of
the
United
Arab
Emirates
and
Oman
have,
as
Ms
Graz
notes,
been
ruled
by
the
same
families
by
the
same
traditional
methods
since
the
nineteenth
century
and,
in
many
cases,
earlier.
The
ruling
family
of
Saudi
Arabia
has
had
its
ups
and
downs
but
it
has
been
a
leading
player
in
the
Arabian
peninsula
since
the
mid-
eighteenth
century.
How
many
regimes
and
political
systems
can
claim
so
long
a
record
of
continuity?
The
countries
in
question,
and
their
rulers,
have
a
stronger
claim
to
legitimacy
than
the
artificial
creations
of
the
post-First
World
War
settlement
such
as
the
Lebanon,
Jordan,
Syria
and
Iraq.
It
is
true
that
the
Gulf
states
would
not
have
survived
either
the attentions
of
the
regional
predators
of
the
nineteenth
century
or
the
storms
which
have
swept
the
Arab
world
in
the
past
fifty
years
had
it
not
been
for
British
protection
up
to
1971.
But
they
have
survived,
even
into
full
independence
after
the
British
withdrawal
until
threatened
by
the
ambitions
of
Iraq’s
current
dictator,
an
’Arab
brother’ .
Of
all
the
countries
under
review,
Iraq
is
the
only
one
in
which
turbulence
has
been
endemic
since
its
creation
by
the
British
in
1920.
Even
Iran
is
experiencing only
its
fifth
regime,
albeit
its
first
republican
one,
since
it
re-emerged
as
a
modern
state
at
the
beginning
of
the
sixteenth
century.
After
an
historical
introduction,
Ms
Graz
has
devoted
a
chapter
to
each
of
the
states
including
Iran
and
Iraq
and
has
concluded
with
a
chapter
on
the
evolution
since
1981
1
of
the
Gulf
Cooperation
Council.
Each
essay
is
well
balanced
between
fact,
description
and
analysis,
although
there
are
few
observations
which
come
fresh
to
Gulf
specialists.
What
does
emerge
is
the
astonishing
variety
to
be
found
in
a
group
of
states
which,
particularly
from
the
great
distance
of
the
United
States
of
America,
often
appear
to
commentators
as
an
undifferentiated
congerie
of
archaic,
feudal
societies.
Ms
Graz
shows
us
Bahrain,
a
sophisticated
welfare
state
since
the
1920s,
mercantile
and
easy-
going
in
spite
of
the
sharp
division
in
the
population
between
Shias
and
Sunnis;
Qatar’s
s
strange
cultural
flowering;
entrepreneunal
Dubai;
Oman
with
its
own
imperial
history
in
East
Africa
and
the
East
Indies;
Saudi
Arabia’s
remarkable
symbiosis
between
the
ruling
family
and
the
Wahhabi
sect
of
Islam,
and
so
on.
This
book
should
be
studied
by
those
observers
who
are
arguing
that
the
Kuwaiti
crisis
must
bring
democracy
in
its
wake,
grotesque
as
it
seems
that
Saddam
Hussein
should
in
any
way
become
a
protagonist,
even
unintentionally,
of
human
liberty.
Liesl
Graz
shows
us
how,
although
the
human
rights
and
social
systems
of
the
Gulf
states
and
Saudi
Arabia
would
not
pass
muster
in
Scandinavia,
there
is
vastly
greater
freedom
from
persecution
and
oppression
in
those
states
than
in
the
ideological
dictatorship
of
Iraq,
the
Iranian
theocracy
or
other
semi-military,
ostensibly
’democratic’
Middle
Eastern
regimes;
how
personal
access
between
rulers
and
ruled
transcends
anything
which
has
existed
in
the
Western
world
for
centuries,
thus
tempering
resentment
at
the
absence
of
institutionalized
participation
in
governmental
decision-making;
and
how,
on
balance,
the
rulers
have
devoted
oil
wealth
to
the
well-being
of
their
subjects
as
well
as
to
their
own
enrichment
and
entertainment.
Those
outside
commentators
who
are
so
contemptuous
and
critical
of
’feudal
regimes’
should
bear
the
following
in
mind.
The
peoples
of
Saudi
Arabia
and
the
Arab
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