Your search
Results 3 resources
-
For a long time, analysts of the Middle East have justifiably focused their attention on Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates, three Gulf states holding massive hydrocarbon deposits and financial resources. Their leaders are the main “movers and shakers” of regional affairs and enjoy tremendous influence on the international scene. Still, other Gulf states play significant roles in shaping the Middle East's economic and strategic landscape. Such is the case with Oman, which has been a major US ally in most regional crises and has played a crucial role in mediating Gulf conflicts. This article, based on several visits to the sultanate and interviews with senior officials, analyzes the domestic, regional, and international dynamics being navigated by Sultan Haitham bin Tarik, who succeeded Sultan Qaboos bin Said in January 2020. The argument is that the new Omani leader is likely to follow the domestic and foreign policies of his predecessor, with minor adjustments. Oman may witness major changes when Crown Prince Theyazin succeeds his father. For now, given the crucial role Muscat plays in mediating regional conflicts, the sultanate expects more attention from its counterparts in Washington.
-
Mobile peoples in the Middle East and elsewhere in the world have faced enormous pressure throughout the twentieth and twentieth-first centuries to change their way of life, to settle down and remain in one place. The notion that a settled existence is more modern than a mobile one continues to dominate expert thinking as a continuation of late nineteenth-century social evolutionist theories of the progress of civilisation. Most of the modern nation-states of the Middle East have approached their mobile pastoral peoples with a determined view to making them stay put in one place and give up their pastoral subsistence livelihoods. Settlement schemes, it was assumed, would assure political and economic control over these difficult-to-emplace-and-control peoples. The development aid efforts, both bi-lateral and international, throughout the twentieth century followed these same biases and were designed to make mobile or nomadic peoples ‘modern’, using principles developed during the colonial era such as terra nullius, which declared all land not held privately as empty, and thus belonging to the state so that it could be disposed of or developed as the state wished. By the end of the twentieth century, most pastoral peoples’ grazing lands had been expropriated and sed-entarisation schemes of one sort or another were the mechanisms of choice. Pastoral peoples in Oman, however, had some success in challenging the notion of terra nullius in the deserts of the country. A younger generation of ‘citizen’ herders have been able to parlay further multinational oil industry intervention to support their continued mobility in the deserts of Oman and subsistence pastoral livelihoods.I begin the chapter with a brief examination of the ways in which mobile pastoral communities in the Middle East have faced and then navigated around government land expropriation and sedentarisation efforts to create multi-resource livelihood successes without always being forced to settle. I then examine the situation in Oman, where a more ‘enlightened’ state policy regarding settlement was enacted and where oil concerns have been paramount. Determined to provide social benefits to its mobile pastoral communities without forcing them to settle, the government of Oman extended basic services to these communities late into the twentieth century.
-
Qaboos bin Sa'id, Sultan of Oman from 1970 until his death in 2020, marked Omani history. He belonged to that very small circle of leaders who solemnized their time in power, transforming the Sultanate by empowering generations of citizens to lead constructive and fulfilling lives. Joseph Kéchichian provides a full assessment of the fourteenth Al Sa'id dynasty sovereign, setting out his vision for what was then a relatively isolated nation, championing the necessity for alliances, investing in people as well as the land, and founding key institutions that evolved over five decades. These achievements took time to materialize as Qaboo's preserved Al Sa'id rule, governed wisely, avoided internal and external political entanglements, and passed the torch to his successor Haitham bin Tariq, who validated Al Sa'id authority upon becoming Sultan. A Sultanate that Endures is a companion volume to Oman and the World: The Emergence of an Independent Foreign Policy (RAND, 1995). Ithighlights Omani history, with a particular focus on the religious creed Ibadhiyyah that embraces tolerance and prevents injustice. The transition from a theocracy to a monarchy that established dynastic rule is discussed in the context of the Sultanate's millennial history, affirming its rulers' legitimacy and citizen acceptance. The author evaluates how Ibadhiyyah and its traditions formed the gist of the Sultanate's foreign policies, concentrating on ties with predominantly Muslim-inhabited countries, engagement with the African Continent, its links with the Arab Gulf region, and appraising Omani diplomacy with key Asian and Western countries. The study closes with a preliminary analysis of the transition to Sultan Haitham, evaluates his primary appointments, and reviews his declared priorities for the nation. Future domestic and foreign policy challenges that may confront Omanis concludes the volume.
Explore
Resource type
- Book (1)
- Book Section (1)
- Journal Article (1)