Cover to Cover: Kristian Coates Ulrichsen on Qatar and the Gulf Crisis

Listen now to WACA's Cover to Cover conference call from Thursday, July 16, at 2:00-2:30 PM ET, featuring Kristian Coates Ulrichsen, Fellow for the Middle East at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy and an Associate Fellow of Chatham House’s Middle East and North Africa Program, on his book Qatar and the Gulf Crisis.

 

In 2017, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the UAE and Egypt severed diplomatic ties with Qatar, launching an economic blockade by land, air and sea. Well into its second year, the standoff in the Gulf has no realistic end in sight. With the Bahraini and Emirati criminalisation of expressing support for Qatar, and the Saudi labelling of detainees as ‘traitors’ for their alleged Qatari links, bitterness has been stoked between deeply interconnected peoples. The adviser to the Saudi crown prince advocating a moat to physically separate Qatar from the Arabian Peninsula illustrates the ongoing intensity - and irrationality - of the crisis. Ulrichsen offers an authoritative study of this international standoff, from both sides.