ROUTLEDGE LIBRARY EDITIONS:
THE ECONOMY OF THE MIDDLE EAST
Volume 29
SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC
DEVELOPMENT IN THE ARAB GULF
First published in 1980
This edition first published in 2014
by Routledge
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1980 Tim Niblock
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British LibraryCataloguinginPublicationData
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN: 978-1-138-78710-0 (Set)
eISBN: 978-1-315-74408-7 (Set)
ISBN: 978-1-138-81018-1 (Volume 29)
eISBN: 978-1-315-74432-2 (Volume 29)
Publishers Note
The publisher has gone to great lengths to ensure the quality of this reprint but points out that some imperfections in the original copies may be apparent.
Disclaimer
The publisher has made every effort to trace copyright holders and would welcome correspondence from those they have been unable to trace.
1980 Tim Niblock
Croom Helm Ltd., Provident House, Burrell Row,
Beckenham, Kent BR3 1 AT
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Social and economic development in the Arab Gulf
1. Persian Gulf States - Social conditions
I. Niblock, Tim
309.2309536 HN662.A8
ISBN 0-7099-0422-3
Reprinted 1982
All rights reserved. For information, write:
St. Martins Press, Inc., 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010
Printed in Great Britain
First published in the United States of America in 1980
ISBN 0-312-73145-0
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Main entry under title:(Set)
Social and Economic Development the Arab Gulf.
Initially presented as papers of the inaugural
conference of the Centre for Arab Gulf Studies at
the University of Exeter, held 913 July, 1979.
Includes index
1. Persian Gulf region politics and government
congresses. 2. Persian Gulf region social conditions
congresses. 3. Persian Gulf region economic conditions
congresses. I. Niblock, Tim. 11. Exeter, Eng. University.
Centre for Arab Gulf Studies.
DS326.S65 1980 953.6 80-13697
Typeset in Great Britain by
Pintail Studios Ltd, Ringwood, Hampshire
Printed and bound by
Biddies Ltd, Guildford, Surrey
Contents
Tim Niblock
J. J. Malone
Mohamed G. Rumaihi
Rosemarie Said Zahlan
Keith McLachlan
John Townsend
Mohamed G. Rumaihi
J. C. Wilkinson
J. S. Birks and C. A. Sinclair
Emile A. Nakhleh
Naomi Sakr
Tim Niblock
Fred Halliday
The articles in this book were initially presented as papers to the inaugural conference of the Centre for Arab Gulf Studies at the University of Exeter, held 913 July 1979. The editor wishes to extend his thanks to all those who participated in this conference: the lively discussions which characterised conference proceedings have helped to determine both the form and the content of the articles in this book. Dr Aziz al-Azmehs assistance in organising the conference was highly appreciated. Particular thanks should go to the chairman of the conference and Director of the Centre for Arab Gulf Studies, Professor M. A. Shaban.
Mrs Sheila Westcott has typed the manuscript, displaying her customary resources of patience and good humour in addition to her competence in typing.
Acknowledgement is due to Frank Cass and Co. for permission to reprint the maps found on page 13 and page 114; to Croom Helm for permission to reprint the maps found on page 12 and page 123; and to John Wiley for permission to reprint the map found on page 85.
It is hoped that this publication will be the first in a series produced by the Centre for Arab Gulf Studies, focusing attention on that crucially important region which has hitherto been so strangely neglected by academic researchers: the Arab Gulf. The Centre wishes to express its appreciation of the generous financial assistance which the governments of Qatar and the United Arab Emirates have provided for the centres activities.
Tim Niblock
TIM NIBLOCK
Perspective
The crucial importance of the Arab Gulf region today which may be defined as comprising the states of Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Kuwait, Oman, Bahrain, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, with Iran as a non-Arab onlooker has stimulated surprisingly little interest in academic circles. The few distinguished academic works which have been written on the society and politics of the contemporary Arab Gulf region1 have by no means filled the need for understanding. Much of what has been written on the Gulf, moreover, focuses exclusively on those aspects of direct concern to external interests. The concern is with security, interpreted as the ability of the Western powers to retain access to Gulf oil, with the operation of the oil industry, and with the means whereby petrodollars can be recycled so as to ensure that revenues earned from oil find their way back into the Western economy.
The focus of this book is on the Arab Gulf region as an area with its own problems of social, economic and political development. It examines the dimensions of the attempts by the governments and peoples of the area to create new social, economic and political structures stemming mainly, of course, from their new-found oil wealth. The ample availability of capital does not by itself solve the problem of formulating and implementing coherent development policies. Indeed, the fact that governments are not restrained by shortage of capital tends to throw into greater relief the other problems confronting the formulation and implementation of coherent policies, and the extent to which the social, political and economic dimensions are intertwined.
Both the desirability of and the difficulty in examining patterns of development and change in the Arab Gulf stem from the speed at which the conditions affecting development potential have been transformed. The availability of ample (and excess) capital for development came upon the states concerned very suddenly. This was most pronounced, of course, for the more recent oil producers the United Arab Emirates (beginning production in Abu Dhabi in 1962, Dubai 1969 and Sharjah 1973) and Oman (beginning production in 1967). Consequent upon oil production, the late 1960s and early 1970s saw government revenues increase many fold in these states. By 1979, oil production in the United Arab Emirates was averaging 1.5 million barrels a day (b/d), while in Oman average production was running at 300,000 b/d. The small size of the indigenous populations (1975 figures: UAE 200,000, Oman 500,000) ensured that the effects on standards of living were immense. World Bank estimates of GNP
