Research & Publications: Gulf

Economic and trade relations have been the most dynamic and significant component of the fundamental changes that have taken place in India's relations with the Gulf Cooperation Council (G.C.C.) countries since the early 1990s. As a consequence, the Gulf has become of vital strategic importance for India in terms of energy security, trade, investment, and remittances. This essay discusses the contours of India’s trade relations with the G.C.C. countries, including the contributions they have made to India’s economic ascent and the scope for their further development.

Cordial interactions between President Donald Trump and several G.C.C. leaders suggest a warming in U.S.-G.C.C. relations after years of friction with the Obama administration.

There is no doubt that a significant reason behind the electronic ban is to stifle competition from Gulf airlines, and to encourage U.S. bound passengers to fly on American carriers.

The discourse of Non-Alignment continues to shape the political culture of the Indian establishment’s strategic thinking in the field of foreign policy, notwithstanding the decline of Gandhian-Nehruvian moralism and increasing adaptation to the culture of power-centered realism in recent years. This essay shows that gradualism and risk avoidance remain deeply embedded features of India’s conduct of external relations, including its relations with West Asia.

Against the backdrop of the global geo-economic shift from West to East, India and its G.C.C. counterparts can, and should, seize the opportunity to recalibrate and reshape their economic relations. This essay discusses how the adoption of a value chain approach and its application to the healthcare high-tech digital service sectors.

This essay explores the future of India-Gulf ties in all spheres and some out-of-the-box security dynamics, especially the possibility of evolving an alternative security mechanism in the Gulf. It specifically highlights the opportunities and challenges for Asian countries, especially India, in the quest for a new collective security architecture and stability in the region.

The introduction of the draft in Gulf monarchies — after decades of sovereign statehood — presents an interesting puzzle. What are the reasons behind the newly implemented conscription? What broader implications does this phenomenon have for the Gulf? This essay addresses these questions.

In this week's Monday Briefing, MEI experts Paul Salem, Alex Vatanka, Gerald Feierstein, and Charles Lister provide analysis on recent and upcoming events including U.S.-Middle East relations in the new Trump administration, the view of Trump's inauguration from Tehran, the Gulf's 'wait and see' approach to the new administration, and Russia's public position on Syria talks at the outset of talks in Astana.