Troubled waters in the Gulf

The Qatar crisis has ensured that the region can no longer boast being an oasis of tranquillity

These are, to put it mildly, unsettling days for the Arab Gulf states. The Qatar crisis demonstrates dramatically what they had perhaps been unwilling to accept before: the comfort blanket of solid and enduring political stability has been removed. After decades of quiet oil-funded prosperity and back-seat regional politics, the six states of the Gulf Cooperation Council (Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates) face a maelstrom of challenges. Even before the Qatar controversy erupted, the population of the Gulf was witnessing a radical change in leadership styles—at least in two of the key GCC states, Saudi Arabia and the UAE. Two charismatic and ambitious le