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A young Al-Thani, Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid, laid out his plans for a new Arab and Islamic art institute in New York in an interview with The Art Newspaper in March Sheikh Mohammed hopes to open the 2,500m2 cultural space in May in downtown Manhattan. It will host exhibitions travelling from the Arab and Islamic worlds. Shows will be held on a quarterly basis at the institute, which will run a residency programme and will produce publications.

Syrian rebel groups are keeping an anxious eye on the dispute pitting Qatar against its neighbours, as divisions threaten to widen between factions that have grown heavily dependent on their Gulf patrons for funding and arms – some of whose agendas are being actively shaped by their patrons’’ distinctive regional interests.Fears are growing that the Eastern Ghouta area near Damascus is set to become the latest proxy battleground for rival Gulf states.

The widely respected UA University political scientist Abdulkhaleq Abdulla has been released having been held by state security in January. The academic, who has been vocal on freedom of speech issues, was silent on his preferred Twitter platform between 16 and 26 January, before returning with thanks to his followers for their prayers for him during his “sudden trip”.

Sweden’s Cassandra Oil, which recycles hydrocarbon-based waste, has signed a memorandum of understanding with Tomorrow Environment Company (Teco), which belongs to Prince Faisal Bin Miqrin Bin Abdelaziz. A joint venture company will be formed to process oil waste products relating to Teco’s licence with Saudi Aramco. Prince Faisal’s father is the former deputy crown prince Miqrin. Faisal has been in business for many years.

Sultan Qaboos Bin Said Al-Said celebrated his 45th anniversary on the throne on 23 July – the day he overthrew his father in a coup in 1970 and now known as Renaissance Day in the country – but he remained out of the public eye. Since returning in April from Germany, where he underwent the latest round of medical treatment for what is thought to be cancer, he has kept a low profile, although health minister Dr Almed Al-Saidi recently insisted the sultan was in good health.

Kuwaiti Army chief of the General Staff Lieutenant General Mohammed Al-Khodhr met his French counterpart General François Lecointre in Paris on 22 October to discuss defence co-operation. Khodhr also visited a defence simulation centre to be briefed on its support for training and operations. France has been training Kuwaiti air cadets at Dax, in the south-west, whose first batch graduated on 18 October in the presence of Kuwaiti Air Force commander Major General Adnan Al-Fadhli and military attaché in France Brigadier General Ziyad Abdul Latif Al-Saqr.

British Prime Minister David Cameron has been calling up Gulf leaders as London weighs its role in the region’s crises. On 14 August, Cameron called Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed; on 18 August, he called Saudi King Abdullah Bin Abdelaziz, Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad and Jordanian King Abdullah II.

Emir Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani travelled to Poland on 4 May for talks with officials including President Andrzej Duda and Marshal of the Sejm (parliament) Marek Kuchcinski. A few days earlier the emir was in Jeddah, to greet King Salman. Back in Doha, he received Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa, in a meeting attended by prime minister and interior minister Sheikh Abdullah Bin Nasser Al-Thani. On 10 May he hosted GCC secretary-general Dr Abdulatif Bin Rashid Al-Zayani at the Emiri Diwan.

Emir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmed Al-Jaber Al-Sabah has been in power since January 2006; he is 85 years old, and there are some concerns about his health. His half-brother, Crown Prince Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmed Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, is expected to succeed him when he dies, and is a fairly uncontroversial choice, although, at 77, he is also advancing in years. Presuming Nawaf succeeds, the key question is who will be the next crown prince. Family members’ jostling for position is behind much of the confrontational politics visible in Kuwait today.

Prime Minister Sheikh Abdullah Bin Nasser Bin Khalifa Al-Thani inaugurated a new coast guard facility at Al-Daayen Naval Base in the Semaisma area in the north of the country, on 14 July. A fleet of new boats for the General Directorate of Coasts and Borders Security was launched at the same time. The base will be used for maritime security operations – not least to protect the country’s offshore oil and gas facilities – as well as search and rescue and combatting illegal immigration.

Aircraft used by members of the Qatari ruling family are in line for a security upgrade by the United States, after the State Department in late September approved the sale of two counter-measures systems at a cost of around $86m. The systems will be fitted to two of the Amiri Flight’s Boeing 747-800 aircraft, described by the US government as “Head-of-State aircraft”. The Large Aircraft Infrared Countermeasures (LAIRCM) systems include missile warning sensors and Guardian laser turret assemblies. The main contractor is Northrop Grumman.

The United States is to provide counter-terrorism training and materials on a grant basis, as one of a series of agreements finalised during the Third US-Kuwait Strategic Dialogue, which took place in Kuwait on 20 March. The two governments also signed off on plans to improve co-operation to identify high-risk travellers that pose a security risk. It was only in January that the US lifted a three-year block on Kuwait Airways operating direct flights to New York.

General president of Youth Welfare and head of the Saudi Arabian Olympic Committee Prince Abdullah Bin Musaid Bin Abdelaziz was in Baku on 12 June to attend the opening ceremony of the 2015 European Games. He also attended an official lunch hosted by Azeri President Ilham Aliyev, who visited Saudi Arabia in April, and on 13 June had talks with him. Abdullah Bin Musaid, whose official roles have increased his prominence since 2014, was last in Azerbaijan in April, to sign an agreement on holding the Islamic Solidarity Games there.

Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Nayef performed funeral prayers on 25 April at Imam Turki Bin Abdullah mosque in Riyadh for Prince Nasser Bin Sultan Bin Nasser Bin Abdelaziz who was killed in a car accident. The prince was one of several sons of Prince Sultan, who is patron of the Riyadh cricket league and sponsors the Prince Sultan T20 Cup.

Timothy Geithner’s first visit to Saudi Arabia and the UAE since becoming US Treasury Secretary highlighted again the important role Gulf Co-operation Council governments play in the global economy, and the fact that the strategic alliances between the United States and GCC polities have been central to maintaining the regional status quo. Not only are all the GCC economies, except for Kuwait, pegged to the dollar, but they are also the largest foreign investors in US stocks.