David Wearing - Angloarabia: Why Gulf Wealth Matters to Britain

1. Table 2.1 Share of global proven oil reserves, 2016
2. Table 3.1 Leading sovereign wealth funds, including all from GCC, June 2016
3. Table 4.1 UK exports of goods and services worldwide, 2015, in current prices
4. Table 4.2 UK primary income, 2015, in current prices
5. Table 4.3 Liabilities to counterparties resident in GCC, by location of bank
6. Table 4.4 External liabilities of monetary financial institutions operating in the UK
7. Table 4.5 External assets of monetary financial institutions operating in the UK
8. Table 4.6 UK current account balances worldwide, 2015, in current prices
9. Table 4.7 Gulf region contributions to total UK current account balance by sector, 2015, in current prices
10. Table 4.8 The UKs net international investment position and selected sources of capital imports, 2015, in current prices
11. Table 6.1 Value of export licences approved by the UK government in respect of Bahrain

1. Figure 2.1 UK petroleum and gas imports as a percentage of primary supply
2. Figure 2.2 UK crude oil imports by country/region of origin
3. Figure 3.1 UK current account deficit since the end of the Cold War, as a percentage of GDP
4. Figure 3.2 GCC major hydrocarbon producer-state current account balances, in current prices
5. Figure 3.3 GCC total current account surpluses in global context, in current prices
6. Figure 4.1 UK exports of goods and services, in current prices
7. Figure 4.2 UK asset ownership in the Gulf region over time, current prices
8. Figure 4.3 UK current account balances with the Gulf region, in current prices
9. Figure 4.4 UK net international investment position with Saudi Arabia and other Gulf Arabian countries, in current prices
10. Figure 5.1 Leading sources of major arms transfers to Saudi Arabia, 19912015
11. Figure 5.2 Values and overall linear trend of major arms transfers from the United Kingdom, 19912015

David Wearing

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Copyright David Wearing 2018

The right of David Wearing to be identified as Author of this Work has been asserted in accordance with the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

First published in 2018 by Polity Press

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ISBN-13: 978-1-5095-3206-3

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While responsibility for any errors grammatical, factual or analytical is entirely my own, I owe a debt of gratitude to many whose help was crucial in carrying out this research.

Gilbert Achcar has been an invaluable mentor and a formative intellectual influence. I am very grateful to him, and to Adam Hanieh and Alfredo Saad Filho, for their guidance and advice on the doctoral thesis that formed the basis of this book. In general, the academic community at the University of Londons School of Oriental and African Studies both staff and students provided the perfect environment in which to develop and sharpen my understanding of this complex topic.

The LipmanMiliband Trust was kind enough to award me a small grant from the Peter Gowan Prize fund to support my endeavours. Campaign Against Arms Trade kindly provided access to their meticulously curated archives and to their considerable collective knowledge and expertise. Rosemary Hollis and Tony Norfield were both very generous with their time, and I learned a great deal from our conversations. In attempting to turn my thesis into a manuscript that retained its academic rigour while becoming accessible and engaging for a general audience, I am indebted to the patience and professionalism of Louise Knight and Nekane Tanaka Galdos at Polity, and to the wisdom of a very kind and constructive academic reviewer. Thanks must also go to David Gee, Caroline Richmond and everyone involved in the production of the book, which has benefited significantly from their input.

For a mixture of helpful chats, support and good company, heartfelt thanks go to Mike Walton, Rachel Shabi, Nithya Natarajan, Maya Goodfellow, Niheer Dasandi, Sarah Crook and Clare Clark. For their unique insights and their inspiration to me, I am deeply grateful to Alaa Shehabi, Maryam al-Khawaja, Iona Craig, Rasha Mohamed and Sayed Alwadaei.

Above all, this work is dedicated to my family and to the fond memory of my grandparents, with much love.

The Gulf Arab monarchies, and Saudi Arabia in particular, are among Britains most important allies in the world arguably more important than any other states in the global south. Investment from the Gulf is becoming highly visible in the UK economy, and controversy over British arms sales in the region in the context of the Arab uprisings or the war in Yemen is rarely far from the news. At the time of writing, a major humanitarian catastrophe is unfolding in Yemen, in large part as a result of a military intervention led by Saudi Arabia in which Britishsupplied arms have played a very significant role. Yet, until now, no detailed and comprehensive study of Britains relationships with the Gulf states has been produced in the modern era.

This book attempts to map the deep, material structures of Britains relations with the states of the Gulf Cooperation Council (the GCC), a grouping of Arab monarchies comprising Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Oman. It will trace the historical background to these relationships, the arms that have been sold, the investments that have been made, the real significance of oil, and the balance of power between the two sides. What emerges is a unique Anglo-Arabian nexus of power and interests holding major importance for British capitalism and foreign relations. The reader will hopefully come away with a rich and detailed sense of why the Gulf Arab monarchies matter to the UK, and why the UK matters to them.

The key arguments of the book can be summarised as follows. First, UKGCC relations in the modern era are the product of historical processes, particularly relating to the century and a half when the British Empire was the dominant power in the Gulf. Second, British power has been an important factor (among others) in the promotion and preservation of monarchical rule in the region. Third, the UKs current interest in Gulf oil and gas is less about direct energy supply and more about strategic, geopolitical and commercial interests. Fourth, the current forms of capitalism that exist in the UK and in the GCC area have come to complement each other in a series of important ways. Fifth, and relatedly, the GCC area is as important to British capitalism as and, in some crucial senses, more important than any other part of the global south. Sixth, UK arms exports to the Gulf Arab monarchies are less about commercial profit and more about their strategic value to British military power, which value is highly significant and growing. Seventh, the British government has in recent years played a key enabling role in supporting both the authoritarian backlash against the Arab Spring in the Gulf and the disastrous Saudi-led intervention in the war in Yemen.