CAIS Public Lecture Series | State Capitalism in the Arab Gulf Monarchies

While scholars have understandably given emphasis to the role of oil and gas revenues in the political economy of the Arab Gulf monarchies — Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) — especially through rentier state theory (RST) and its variants, an increasingly evident and related dynamic is a uniquely structured form of state capitalism. This is similar to what Ian Bremmer called “new state capitalism” (NSC), but which in slightly amended form I have called “entrepreneurial state capitalism” (ESC). These terms refer to economies in which some free market mechanisms are allowed to operate, such as supply and demand setting the price for most goods and services and smaller private sector firms being allowed to operate fairly freely in much of the economy, yet with the state acting as a strong regulator of the economy, directly or indirectly owning most of the major firms, monopolizing key sectors such as oil, gas, petrochemicals, defence/security, telecommunications, and usually media, among others, and typically nurturing key indigenous private sector firms. This seminar provides a deep dive into the NSC concept, refining it into the ESC one and then explaining its key features, making the case for it being a core framework for the contemporary Arab Gulf states.

Speaker:

Matthew Gray joined Waseda University in Tokyo, Japan as an associate professor in September 2016. His role covers teaching on political science, especially on Middle Eastern studies. His research interests are mostly focused on the politics, political economy, and international relations of the Gulf monarchies. Prior to joining Waseda, he was at The Australian National University in Canberra over 2005-2016. Over 1997-2005 worked in the Australian government in various roles including trade promotion, defence analysis, and immigration policy. He has been a visiting scholar at Tokyo University in Japan and at Durham University in the UK.He has published extensively in reputed academic journals. He is the author of Global Security Watch - Saudi Arabia (Praeger, 2014); Qatar: Politics and the Challenges of Development (Lynne Rienner, 2013); and Conspiracy Theories in the Arab World: Sources and Politics (Routledge, 2010).