State-Business Relations in the Gulf Monarchies

On April 8, 2016, CIRS director Mehran Kamrava took part in a roundtable on state-business relations in the GCC. The roundtable, hosted by Chatham House in London, is part of a research grant entitled “Re-negotiating the Social Contract in the GCC”, funded by the UK Economic and Social Research Council (ES/J012696/1).

Other participants included Dean Gerd Nonneman from Georgetown University-Qatar and Marc Valeri and Anastasia Nosova from the University of Exeter. The roundtable discussed the relations between the state and the business elite in the six GCC monarchies, in the aftermath of the Arab Spring and in the context of the re-emergence of neoliberal policies in the region. It focused on the role of the business elite in affecting the orientation and the outcomes of the socio-economic policies in the Gulf, especially in relation to labour market, diversification and privatization policies; on the implications of these policies for the composition of the business elite and, more broadly, for the state-business elite relationship; and on the economic influence of the political elite in the GCC.

• More information about the research project 
• Read more about the Chatham House roundtable meeting