Jim_Krane]_Energy_Kingdoms__Oil_and_Political_Sur

BEFORE OIL11

economic change. The disparate sheikhdoms quickly integrated with
counterparts in the region and within the global economy. By 1971, all six
were members of the United Nations. Between 1960 and 1967, all but Bah-
rain and Oman joined the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting
Countries (OPEC). In 1981, the six monarchies banded together to form
the Gulf Cooperation Council, or GCC, a loose union based on monar-
chical rule, self- defense, free movement, and coordinated laws. The
GCC states (shown in figure 1.1) comprise all the countries of the Ara-
bian Peninsula except Yemen, left out of the union because of its major
differences with the six monarchies. These start with Yemen’s chronic
instability and underdevelopment and extend to the country’s large
population and small natural resource base as well as its republican
(nonmonarchical) government.

SAUDI

ARABIA

OMAN

AFGH.

PAK.

YEMEN

DJIBOUTI

Gulf of Aden

RedSea

Arabian Sea

Socotra(YEMEN)

ERITREA

IRAQ IRAN

LEBANON SYRIA

PALESTINEISRAEL

KUWAIT

Q ATA R

Doha

Dubai OMAN

Muscat

Gulf ofOman

Gulf ofAqaba

Kuwait

JORDAN

EGYPT

SUDAN

ETHIOPIA

Tabuk

30

20

10

Salalah

DhabiAbu

UNITED ARABEMIRATES

Jeddah Mecca

Blue Nile

Medina

Ha’il Al-BatinHafar

Buraydah

Riyadh

Jubail

Persian Gulf

Al-KhobarDammamDhahran

Yanbu

AdministrativeBoundary

Abha

Jizan

BAHRAIN

FIGURE 1.1 The Persian Gulf countries.