The crucial importance of the 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. Much of what has been written, moreover, focuses exclusively on those aspects of direct concern to external interests. The focus of this book is on the 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.

Preface; Chapter 1 Introduction, Tim Niblock; Chapter 2 Involvement and Change: The Coming of the Oil Age to Saudi Arabia, J. J. Malone; Chapter 3 The Mode of Production in the Arab Gulf Before the Discovery of Oil, Mohamed G. Rumaihi; Chapter 4 Hegemony, Dependence and Development in the Gulf, Rosemarie Said Zahlan; Chapter 5 Natural Resources and Development in the Gulf States, Keith McLachlan; Chapter 6 Problems Confronting the Establishment of a Heavy Industrial Base in the Arab Gulf, John Townsend; Chapter 7 Pastoral Nomads in a Rapidly Changing Economy: The Case of Saudi Arabia, Donald P. Cole; Chapter 8 Changes in the Structure of Village Life in Oman, J. C. Wilkinson; Chapter 9 Economic and Social Implications of Current Development in the Arab Gulf: The Oriental Connection, J. S. Birks, C. A. Sinclair; Chapter 10 Political Part icipation and the Constitutional Experiments in the Arab Gulf: Bahrain and Qatar, Emile A. Nakhleh; Chapter 11 Federalism in the United Arab Emirates: Prospects and Regional Implications, Naomi Sakr; Chapter 12 The Prospects for Integration in the Arab Gulf, Tim Niblock; Chapter 13 The Gulf Between Two Revolutions: 1958-1979, Fred Halliday;