|
|
UAE Freezones Biz News Updates
|
|
|
Power centre shifting to GCC, analyst says
 Saudi King,
Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, left, attends the opening session of the Arab
Leaders summit at Sharm Al Sheikh, Egypt.
The centre of power in the Middle East is shifting from the Levant to the
Arabian Gulf because of security issues and political turmoil.
That is according to political analysts at a conference in Abu Dhabi on
Wednesday.
They said the future of the Arab world would be bleak if countries did not
recognise and accept that political, cultural, religious and gender
diversity were necessary
for stability.
The Middle East’s centre of power was always in the Levant, but it was
moving to GCC countries, said Abdullah Al Shayji, a professor of political
science at Kuwait
University and visiting professor at George Washington University.
“It is a fact and a reality that was confirmed by the Saudi Arabian-led
coalition [battling ISIL],” he said, adding that Operation Decisive Storm
had changed the
stereotypical image of Arab countries as weak.
“It surprised many parties, including the US,” Prof Al Shayji said on the
second day of the annual conference of the Emirates Centre for Strategic
Studies and
Research. “There is now a retreat of the US’s role and its allies are
worried about this.
“The more there is equality of power in a region, the more stable that
region is and the less likely it is to have wars and armed conflict.”
The Arab coalition’s military campaign was a “wake-up call” to countries
such as Turkey, Iran and the US.
“We [the Arab states] are now mature, we can deliver, stand up, be counted
and deter our enemies,” said Prof Al Shayji.
He noted that the question of whether Saudi Arabia could launch an airstrike
against Iran was asked for the first time in Iran’s parliament recently.
“That is a change of mindset. Iranians never thought Arabs would take such a
position,” said Prof Al Shayji.
Although battling religious extremism and ISIL was necessary, faith in
diversity and pluralism was crucial in helping the Arab world to achieve
stability, said Dr
Marwan Muasher, vice president for studies at the Carnegie Endowment for
International Peace in the US.
“Pluralism is not the only condition to reach stability, but it is one of
the prerequisites because without it no society can reach sustainable
prosperity,” he said.
Moving towards an economy based on competence and productivity rather than
energy commodities was essential, he said. “Reaching all these objectives
will take
a lot of time and effort,” said Dr Muasher.
“It will include completely rethinking education models in the Arab world,
which are instructive but do not encourage critical thinking.
“There are no benefits in repackaging existing policies. There is a need to
come up with new policies and defining steps that will reach a stable
society.”
Richard Makepeace, registrar at the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies in
Britain, said the region had experienced unparalleled change in the past few
weeks.
He said proposals to set up a regional Arab military force could be a very
important and positive development.
In the region, people of different nationalities and ethnic backgrounds had
been living together in “remarkable harmony”, he said, adding there were
places where
that remained the case, such as the UAE.
“It is tremendously important that we in the West do not lose sight of that
traditional role of the Middle East as a place where everyone was welcome
and had their
rights,” said Mr Makepeace.
Apr 1, 15
|
| |
Courtesy The National
|
|
