Countries of the World/COUNTRYS.BIN/dp/0282/02828.txt

Text File | 1991-06-25 | 30KB | 477 lines

$Unique_ID{COW02828}
$Pretitle{385D}
$Title{Persian Gulf States
Front Matter}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Laraine Newhouse Carter}
$Affiliation{HQ, Department of the Army}
$Subject{states
gulf
defense
gcc
united
al
joint
military
kuwait
arab}
$Date{1984}
$Log{Figure 1.*0282801.scf
}
Country:     Persian Gulf States
Book:        Persian Gulf States, An Area Study: Introduction
Author:      Laraine Newhouse Carter
Affiliation: HQ, Department of the Army
Date:        1984


Front Matter

Foreword

     This volume is one of a continuing series of books prepared by Foreign
Area Studies, The American University, under the Country Studies/Area
Handbook Program. The last page of this book provides a listing of other
published studies. Each book in the series deals with a particular foreign
country, describing and analyzing its economic, national security, political,
and social systems and institutions and examining the interrelationships of
those systems and institutions and the ways that they are shaped by cultural
factors. Each study is written by a multidisciplinary team of social
scientists. The authors seek to provide a basic insight and understanding of
the society under observation, striving for a dynamic rather than a static
portrayal of it. The study focuses on historical antecedents and on the
cultural, political, and socioeconomic characteristics that contribute to
cohesion and cleavage within the society. Particular attention is given to the
origins and traditions of the people who make up the society, their dominant
beliefs and values, their community of interests and the issues on which they
are divided, the nature of extent of their involvement with the national
institutions, and their attitudes toward each other and toward the social
system and political order within which they live.

     The contents of the book represent the views, opinions, and findings
of Foreign Area Studies and should not be construed as an official
Department of the Army position, policy, or decision, unless so designated
by other official documentation. The authors have sought to adhere to accepted
standards of scholarly objectivity. Such corrections, additions, and
suggestions for factual or other changes that readers may have will be
welcomed for use in future new editions.

William Evans-Smith
Director, Foreign Area Studies
The American University
Washington, D.C. 20016

Acknowledgments

     The authors are indebted to numerous individuals in various agencies
of the United States government and in international, diplomatic, and
private organizations in Washington, D.C., who gave of their time, research
materials, and special knowledge on Middle Eastern affairs and the countries
covered in this book to provide data and perspective. The authors also wish
to express their appreciation to members of the Foreign Area Studies staff
who contributed to the preparation of the manuscript. These include Denise
Ryan, Andrea T. Merrill, Lenny Granger, and Dorothy M. Lohmann, who edited the
manuscript; Harriett R. Blood and Gustavo Adolfo Mendoza, who prepared the
graphics; and Gilda V. Nimer, who provided valuable bibliographic assistance.
The authors appreciate as well the contributions of Ernest A. Will,
publications manager, and of Charlotte Benton Pochel, who typed the
manuscript. The book was phototypeset by Margaret Quinn. The efforts of Eloise
W. Brandt and Wayne W. Olsen, administrative assistants, are also sincerely
appreciated.

     Special thanks are owed to Marty Ittner, who designed the book cover and
the illustrations on the title page of each chapter. The inclusion of
photographs in this study was made possible by the generosity of various
individuals and public and private organizations. The authors acknowledge
their indebtedness especially to those who provided work not yet published.

Preface

     The overthrow of the shah of Iran in 1979 and the outbreak of the
Iran-Iraq War in September 1980 were matters of major importance to the region
and the world, but the events were of immediate and growing concern to Iran
and Iraq's five small neighbors: Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, and the United
Arab Emirates (UAE). In 1981 the rulers of these Arab monarchies joined with
the Saudi Arabian monarchy to form the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). The
members of the GCC have since embarked on numerous joint socioeconomic and
political ventures, and they have used the GCC to channel massive financial
and other assistance to Iraq. In addition, by late 1984 the GCC members had
engaged in two joint military exercises, and observers anticipated that
military cooperation within the GCC would probably increase throughout the
1980s.

     Persian Gulf States: Country Studies replaces the Area Handbook for the
Persian Gulf States published in 1977. Like its predecessor, the present book
is an attempt to treat in a compact and objective manner the dominant
historical, social, economic, political, and national security aspects of the
contemporary societies. Sources of information included scholarly books,
journals, and monographs; official reports and documents of government and
international organizations; foreign and domestic newspapers and periodicals;
and interviews with individuals having special competence in the affairs of
the separate countries and of the region. Relatively up-to-date economic data
were available for some countries, but not for others, and the sources were
not always in agreement. Most demographic data should be viewed as estimates.

     Brief comments on some of the more valuable sources for further reading
appear at the conclusion of each chapter; the Bibliography is located in the
back of the book. Measurements are generally given in the metric system; a
conversion table is provided to assist those who are unfamiliar with the
system (see table 1, Appendix A). English usage follows Webster's Ninth New
Collegiate Dictionary.

     The transliteration of Arabic words and phrases posed a problem. For many
of the words-such as Muhammad, Muslim, hadith, and shaykh-the authors followed
a modified version of the system adopted by the United States Board on
Geographic Names and the Permanent Committee on Geographic Names for British
official use, known as the BGN/PCGN system; the modification entails the
omission of diacritical markings and hypens. In numerous instances, however,
the names of persons or places are so well known by another spelling that to
have used the BGN/PCGN system might have caused confusion. For example, the
reader will find Mecca rather than Makkah, Oman rather than Uman, and Doha
rather than Ad Dawhah. In addition, although the five governments officially
reject the use of the term Persian Gulf-as do other Arab governments-and refer
to that body of water as the Arabian Gulf, the authors followed the practice
of the United States Board on Geographic Names by using Persian Gulf or Gulf.

     Arab names are frequently confusing to the Western reader, but they
should be viewed as a genealogical chart. For example, the name of the heir
apparent in Qatar is Shaykh Hamad bin Khalifah Al Thani. The term shaykh is
an honorific that is adopted by the male members of noble families, religious
scholars, and other prestigious individuals; the term bin (or ibn) means "son
of" and Al Thani is the name of the ruling family of Qatar. Hamad, who is
addressed as Shaykh Hamad, is, as the name indicates, the son of Khalifah of
the Al Thani family. Should Hamad feel the need to do so, he could include the
names of his forebears to show his lineage, i.e., Hamad bin Khalifah bin Hamad
bin Abdallah bin Qasim bin Muhammad Al Thani. (The word bint means "daughter
of," and the word bani means "son of," hence tribe or clan. A Gulf Arab woman
rarely takes her husband's name; women's names, like men's, usually include
the father's name and possibly the name of the family, clan, or tribe.)

     Many names-such as Rahim, Rahman, Azam, and 96 others-are designations of
the attributes of God. A common name among p