30-31 January: Middle East and North Africa Energy, London
6-7 February: E & P Information and Data Management, London
6-8 February: PowerGen Middle East, Doha
13-15 February: Kuwait Oil and Gas Summit and Exhibition, Kuwait
14-15 February: 9th Annual Trade and Export Finance Conference, Dubai
27-29 February: Offshore Arabia, Dubai
March (date to be confirmed): Middle East Alternative Investment Summit (location to be confirmed)
3-5 March: Saudi Safety and Security, Saudi Arabia
5-8 March: Middle East Investment Summit, Dubai
5-8 March: Hedge Funds World Middle East, Dubai
6-7 March: Saudi Downstream, Saudi Arabia
5-8 March: Middle East Investment Summit, Dubai
20-21 March : 3rd Annual Middle East Securities Forum, Abu Dhabi
25-27 March: Gulf Environment Forum, Saudi Arabia
25-27 March: Saudi Innovation, Diversification & Investment, Saudi Arabia
24-25 April: Middle East Real Estate Summit, Abu Dhabi
9-10 May: SMI's LNG 2012, London
13-15 May: WEPower, Saudi Arabia
18-20 June: Iraq Petroleum, London
Briefings & Reports
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Need an expert briefing to support an investment decision?
GSN’s team of experienced analysts are often called on by governments and their agencies, financial institutions, and energy companies to comment on developments in the Gulf region. Our analysts are available for private briefings (either by telephone or in person) and can produce tailored reports and research on a range of topics and issues. For more information contact Mark Ford. Email:mark@cbi-publishing.com
Politics, succession & risk in Saudi Arabia report
Politics, succession and risk in Saudi Arabia is a GSN special report, published in January 2010. The new report analyses Saudi policy on issues including succession, domestic and regional politics, defence, energy and financial trends, and features extensively researched biographical entries on 1,200 Al-Sauds from the ruling family’s main branch, together with profiles of leading cadet branch businessmen, and a range of maps and graphics.
Read more about the report
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On the page below you will find a selection of articles from the GSN archive. Please note that while some of the content is free to access, all items preceded by a padlock symbol () require a subscription.
King Abdullah goes nuclear and takes GCC with him; Washington expected to follow
Analysis of King Abdullah’s diplomatic contacts shows he was deeply concerned over Iran’s growing influence in the region even before the GCC said it would go nuclear to generate power and barely veiled threats issued from Riyadh over what the Kingdom would do if the USA failed to rein in Iraqi Shiites. Once more, Saudi Arabia and the USA are rethinking their relationship, as they decide how to confront Iran and Iraq’s threatened implosion. Issue 796, 22 December 2006. more
Bahrain leads GCC’s move into naval controls
Participation in a US ‘marine interdiction exercise’ that was clearly meant as a warning to Iran represents a major shift in policy for the Gulf states. Issue 793, 10 November 2006.more
All sides knew a new conflict was coming – the White House knew of Israel’s decision to cripple Hizbollah almost immediately after the 12 July raid that triggered war in Lebanon – but the subsequent carnage has shaken most parties and upset even the more cynical calculations of governments and non-state actors. Crafting a constructive peace from this very unhappy outlook could involve some radical diplomatic shifts. Issue 787, 4 August 2006.more
Dolphin provides a blunt reminder that angering Riyadh doesn’t pay
While hot conflict rages between Israel and Lebanon, and in the West Bank and Gaza, the subtle cold war that from time to time emerges in public involving Saudi Arabia and some of its smaller GCC partners has entered a new phase, discomforting Qatar and the UAE, despite official denials. Issue 786, 21 July 2006.more
Lebanon’s devastation: short sharp shock or harbinger of even worse?
It started with the kidnapping of two Israeli soldiers by Lebanese Hizbollah and within a week escalated into full-scale war, targeting civilians and destroying much of what Beirut has sought to rebuild in the last decade. There is not positive spin to put on events that serve as a dramatic warning to all the region’s governments. Issue 786, 21 July 2006.more
Gulf project finance still on upward curve, despite market concerns
Sponsors are making hay in the Gulf project finance market, with a number of Saudi petrochemicals schemes raising billions of dollars and the pricing of deals tumbling precipitously. Finding the right combination of debt sources remains a key challenge but, for the time being, ECA and Islamic financing have filled gaps in the market. Issue 786, 21 July 2006.more
GCC states signal Iran fears with Hormuz contingency plan
The Gulf States are showing growing unease with Iran’s nuclear aspirations, reflected in the publicising of new plans to keep the Strait of Hormuz open in case of conflict. Issue 784, 23 June 2006.more
Iraq offers training opportunities for Gulf jihadists, but it may not be Afghanistan mark two
Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki announced the “elimination” of Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi on 8 June, as GSN went to press. But even if the Jordanian-born jihadist is dead, Iraq’s security situation is likely to remain dire, with the potential for jihadist overspill into neighbouring states. As GSN 782 noted, this complex phenomenon may not unfold as analysts have predicted over the last three years – and there are signs that the consequences may not be as dramatic as pessimists fear should ‘blowback’ blight the GCC and wider world. Issue 783, 9 June 2006.more
Blowback revisited: Jihadist overspill from Iraq seen to be highly complex and already under way
US military sources in Iraq see the potential for jihadist overspill into the Gulf as a ‘misunderstood’ phenomenon. Issue 782, 26 May 2006. more
Democracy arguments are in the open, rulers have to respond
Democracy was once a dirty word in most of the Gulf Co-operation Council region. There has been extraordinary transformation in atmosphere and official attitudes, which was fully in evidence at the sixth Doha Forum on Democracy, Development and Free Trade. When the government of Qatar first launched this annual series, the very concept of such a meeting seemed wildly adventurous. Today it stands with the spirit of the times: no state wants to be seen as recalcitrant. Every GCC member has either held elections of some kind or, in the case of the United Arab Emirates, is preparing to do so. Issue 781, 12 May 2006.more
View from Abu Dhabi: a free floating Gulf single currency, tough regulation, an enabling state
What is the point of monetary union unless it paves the way to genuine monetary independence? UAE policy-makers believe that in an era when the private sector must do more but government still has a role, the GCC authorities have the financial and regulatory credibility to manage their own currency – which Abu Dhabi believes should still be linked to the dollar. Issue 779, 14 April 2006.more
Investors tend bruises, leaders counter longer term problems
From boom to almost bust, Gulf equity markets have stumbled to dramatic effect. The socio-political consequences could be as significant as the economic impacts, in emerging markets like Saudi Arabia. Issue 778, 24 March 2006.more
‘GCC minus one’: Can Saudi Arabia really be sidelined in Gulf defence?
Issues of timing and politics account for the differing pace of military development between Saudi Arabia and its five smaller GCC partners, and between the northern and southern Gulf regions. This means that, 15 years after the war to liberate Kuwait, GCC militaries are developing in markedly different directions, underlining the gap that has opened between Saudi Arabia and its former closest ally, the United States. Issue 777, 10 March 2006.more
Arabia’s EU relations can weather the anger over Danish cartoons
Demonstrations, government complaints, violence in Tehran, Damascus and Kabul – the row provoked by the publication of cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed in Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten has underlined the depth and breadth of Muslim anger at Western attitudes, leading commentators rushing to speculate about another crisis in relations between the Islamic world and liberal democracies. There has been agonised discussion over how to convince Muslims to appreciate the totemic significance of freedom of expression and media independence to Western society. There has been equally tortured debate over how to get Europeans and North Americans to understand the importance to most Muslims of religion as part of self-identity, and the consequent hurt caused by any breach of its traditions. Issue 775, 10 February 2006.more
Defence debate signals new GCC focus on practical integration
Pressure to overhaul the Peninsula Shield defence arrangement signals GCC governments’ new focus on the practical implementation of regional partnerships as well as bilateral differences. Gulf states have different views on how best to go forward but there are signs that 2006 could emerge as the year when new common institutions and a more flexible concept of ‘linkage’ move regional geopolitics and economics ahead. Issue 773, 13 January 2006.more
Big brother, regional leader or just another member of the GCC club?
Governments everywhere have their disagreements, which are often tinged with a touch of acidity when it is neighbours and allies who are in dispute. There should be no surprise in seeing arguments surface between Saudi Arabia and its fellow members of the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC). But these Peninsula relationships are tinged with a special edge, which springs from the vast disparity in size and power between the Kingdom and its GCC neighbours. Issue 772, 29 December 2005.more
GCC: France promotes EU defence ties
French Defence Minister Michèle Alliot-Marie has called for the development of strong defence ties between European Union and Gulf Co-operation Council states, pointing to the EU’s development of rapid reaction capacity, military training programmes and the political structures to reinforce security. Issue 771, 9 December 2005.more
GCC states struggle to find a role in Iraq
The Gulf Co-operation Council states are trying – and failing – to etch out a role for themselves in the stabilisation of Iraq, according to GSN’s soundings in Washington and Iraq. Issue 769, 11 November 2005.more
More bad news from Iraq: Arab Jihadists are coming home
Saudi Arabia and other GCC states could be the focus for a new upsurge in Jihadist violence under the Al-Qaeda banner. Lessons learned in Iraq could make renewed conflict in the GCC very different from what went before. Issue 767, 14 October 2005.more
Labour unrest as Gulf comes to terms with migrants’ grievances
Governments are slowly adjusting to the need for effective regulation of the way foreign workers are treated. With some 2,000 workers involved in a 13 September strike in Qatar and foreign watchdogs looking on, governments and employers are being forced into change. Issue 765, 16 September 2005.more
Iranian nuclear ambitions drive GCC securocrats towards confidence-building measures
As new President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s government moves inexorably towards completing the nuclear fuel cycle, the spectre of living alongside a nuclear Iran is encouraging GCC securocrats and the think-tank world to focus new attention on the issue of confidence-building and developing a regional security architecture. As ever in the GCC, new measures are likely to lag years behind the rhetoric, despite the support of states such as Oman. Issue 765, 16 September 2005.more
Old enmities hold up progress on regional integration
Arguments over frontier demarcation, maritime sovereignty and rights to economic exploitation are resurfacing along the southern shores of the Gulf, as hopes of regional integration are ensnared in the difficult evolution of relationships between the small coastal monarchies and Saudi Arabia. Issue 761, 15 July 2005.more
New cold war in the Gulf? USA seeks to draw GCC into ‘benign interdiction’ of Iranian shipping
The United States is starting to give serious thought to monitoring and interdicting proliferation through Iran’s seaborne trade to put a further check on the Islamic Republic’s nuclear ambitions, GSN has learnt. This ‘benign interdiction’ of Iranian shipping will place GCC neighbours in some difficulty, as Washington expects them to assist it in this new cold war at sea. Issue 761, 15 July 2005.more
Convergence criteria will start to bite as vision for GCC’s monetary union takes shape
Europe is the model for the Gulf states’ new common monetary and fiscal guidelines, but the dollar remains the exchange rate peg for the run-up to the launch of the single currency. Issue 761, 15 July 2005.more
GCC single market fractured by national ambitions
UAE refusal to abandon its bilateral negotiating strategy places the credibility of a nascent regional customs union in jeopardy as crucial talks with the EU enter the final stretch. Issue 760, 24 June 2005.more
Disquieting downgrades in State’s 2005 Trafficking in Persons report
The governments of Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE have been charged by the US Department of State with not fully complying with the minimum standards to eliminate severe forms of trafficking in persons and, more significantly, for making no significant efforts to do so. Issue 759, 10 June 2005.more
Migrants call for a new deal, GCC governments must respond
With the Gulf Co-operation Council states’ treatment of foreign workers under increasing global scrutiny, there has been a period of unprecedented industrial action by migrant labour this year, with Gulf governments scrambling to respond, possibly by offering too little too late. Protests by foreign workers in 2005 over poor treatment have made headlines across the Gulf – and with stories of abuse increasingly in the public eye, the days when such things weren’t talked about have gone. Issue 759, 10 June 2005.more
US, European manufacturers in dogfight for air combat market
France hopes it has picked up a big deal in Saudi Arabia, the traditionally solid US ally which is emerging as arguably the last bastion of the European combat aircraft market in the Gulf. Meanwhile US giant Lockheed Martin is tightening its grip on GCC procurement as the world’s big aerospace firms battle for dominance in the next decade. Issue 758, 27 May 2005. more
New US National Defence Strategy signals shift to lighter ‘footprint’ in the Gulf States
With commanders looking forward to a reduction of US forces in Iraq from 2006, Pentagon long-range planners are gazing into their crystal balls to discern the future shape of the American military presence in the Gulf. Issue 755, 15 April 2005.more
Consumers must share costs of oil security, exporter lobby argues
Oil supply security does not come free, least of all, if you have no idea when you will want it and when you will not. That, in essence, is the blunt message of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC)’s acting secretary general Adnan Shihab-Eldin. Speaking to GSN as oil prices soared amidst calls for producers to bolster output, Shihab-Eldin clearly felt the consumer nations need to understand that the oil market entails a two-way bargain. Issue 755, 15 April 2005.more
Neither USA nor Hizbollah likely to change spots
A flurry of US government pronouncements on Hizbollah’s politicisation set tongues wagging about a possible change of policy towards the Lebanese Shiite movement, but subsequent backtracking has given a truer impression of the limited prospects for rapprochement being considered by the Bush administration. Issue 754, 25 March 2005. more
European partnership reminds GCC of the benefits of integration
The sometimes fitful progress of co-operation between Europe and the Gulf States is poised to accelerate at last, with a newly crowded calendar of contacts, as the two blocs edge towards a free trade accord and intensify dialogue over energy and Middle Eastern peace. Issue 754, 25 March 2005.more
Leaders cautious in the face of resurgent Shia self-confidence
Iraq’s election will bring Arab Shiites a major share of power for the first time outside the Levant. But GCC governments remain ambivalent about recognising the importance of their Shia communities. Issue 751, 11 February 2005.more
Gulf helicopter market down but far from out
GCC spending on air power-related O&M, human resources and procurement is down on historic highs, but the market remains a huge lure for suppliers. Big markets include Oman, Qatar and the UAE. Issue 749, 14 January 2005.more
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