The Gulf Cooperation Council and the Elusiveness of Defense Cooperation: The Revealing Effect of the 2017–2021 Crisis
Jean-Loup Samaan
Abstract
The 2017-21 blockade of Qatar has frequently been depicted as the largest obstacle to further cooperation within the Gulf Cooperation Council. However, this narrative overestimates the impact of the dispute and underestimates the historical limitations of the GCC and its multilateral projects prior to the crisis. GCC initiatives rarely produced tangible results, even before 2017, because their primary function was at the rhetorical level for Gulf Arab rulers, providing them with narratives of apparent regional unity rather than with concrete instruments of cooperation.
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Community Reviews
Nadhira Kandio
3/4/2026
As expected, the GCC fulfills a superficial purpose. it remains a mystery to me why Saudi Arabia needs a sense of control over these countries, while it has the most abundant oil and it is the largest exporter of it.