The Gulf Research Unit (217335)

The Gulf Investment Framework program aims at advancing the current understanding of the social, economic and political processes shaping the future of the region through original research of high international standard. Simultaneously, it seeks to provid e Norwegian companies and authorities with improved insights into what the economic, legal, political and institutional characteristics of the Gulf region will be in the period between 2010 and 2025. Can the region be expected to maintain a stable state s ystem? What kind of regime type will dominate, and what political currents are likely to present ideological challenges? Is economic reform towards greater liberalisation a realistic scenario? How will the states in the region perform on such key indicato rs as transparency and anti-corruption policies? And how do the people of the Gulf perceive the "old powers" of Europe and the US compared to "new great powers" such as China and India, both of which are increasingly focusing their attention on the Middle East? The US fiasco in Iraq is a clear indication of the inability of the West to transform the Gulf in accordance with its own interests, and serves as a reminder of the need to put local and regional developments centre stage in analyses and future sce narios. A unique contribution of the programme will be to create a network of researchers who, while approaching the problems from their various disciplines, possess a thorough working knowledge of the languages, cultures, religions, and ideologies of th e region. Today, such basic knowledge forms an indispensable prerequisite for any serious empirical analysis and research of international stature, and this quality will enable the program as a whole to be able to conduct and draw on its own fieldwork, an d utilise primary source material to ensure that the more theoretical aspects of the analyses remain empirically grounded in the existing local conditions.