CONTEMPORARY EURASIA VOLUME VI (1) Contemporary-Eurasia-VI-1-engl | Seite 53

CONTEMPORARY EURASIA VI (1)
and annual summit of several leading emerging economies created a
platform aiming to counterbalance Western economies, especially the
US leadership and hegemonic role in the global system 40 .
The GCC’s direct participation in international financial architecture
pushed the regional organization to take steps for promoting new
structures of energy governance. The examples for this case are the
creation of the Gas Exporting Countries’ Forum based in Qatar, and
the International Renewable Energy Agency, the headquarter of which
is situated in Abu Dhabi. The GCC’s active participation in the issues
related to international politics of climate change is significantly
visible as well. Thus, there is a good opportunity for the GCC states to
position themselves within the greater global rebalancing processes 41 .
Nevertheless, there are also some negative effects affecting to
regional stability and GCC’s further development plans. The ‘Arab
Spring’ uprisings starting from December 2010 in Tunisia, thereafter
its rapid spread throughout the whole Middle East impacted rigidly on
Arab societies. The Gulf region demonstrated vulnerability to the
fusion of political pressure, as well as it faced socio-economic
disorder. The GCC states were influenced on various levels in regard
to ‘Arab Spring’ uprisings. Qatar, Kuwait and some parts of UAE
were relatively less affected from this political wave than, for
instance, Bahrain, Oman and Saudi Arabia’s Eastern provinces.
Spread of political turmoil within the GCC states highlighted, that the
rising dissatisfaction is not only in the less resource-rich states of
North Africa, but also it affected the GCC oil-rich states in general,
and Bahrain and Oman in particular 42 .
In accordance with the GCC’s perspectives, there are still many
important issues remaining unresolved. One crucial question is about
the possibility whether in future the GCC regional organization will
deal with foreign states and institutions on a basis of bilateral ties
40
Ulrichsen K., Repositioning the GCC States, op. cit., p. 238.
Ulrichsen K., Rebalancing Global Governance: Gulf States’ Perceptions on the
Governance of Globalization, Global Policy 2 (1), 2011a, p. 65,
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42
Ibid.
41
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