Page 9 - Arabia the Gulf and the West

viii Arabia, the Gulf and the West

ramifications of the Arab-Israeli conflict, the influence of radical political ideas
- are of recent occurrence or alien origin. When to these circumstances are
added the great array of deadly weapons with which the Gulf states have
equipped themselves of late years, the attraction which their oil wealth exerts
for predators of every kind, and the interest which the Gulf’s economic and
strategic significance cannot fail to generate among the great powers, the result
is to make the Gulf one of the most potentially dangerous areas in the world
today.
Yet the general drift of public comment in the West on Arabia and the Gulf
over the past half-a-dozen years, whether by governments, the press, institu­
tions or individuals, has been in the opposite direction, towards a view of the
Gulf in which its material transformation is seen as being accompanied - the
occasional economic follies of its governments notwithstanding - by steady
progress towards political maturity and a sensible appreciation of the region’s
close economic, and perhaps political, interdependence with the Western
industrial world. To sustain such a view has necessitated the depiction of the
regimes in power in Arabia and the Gulf in colours more flattering than their
true ones. It has required, also, the obscuring or misrepresentation of their
basic attitudes towards the West, and the portrayal of their questionable
behaviour over oil supplies and prices as nothing more than the proper pursuit
of legitimate self-interest.
One of the purposes of this book, perhaps its main purpose, is to offer
another interpretation of the recent history of Arabia and the Gulf, and of
Western relations with the area, which may serve as a partial corrective to the
orthodox and, I believe, dangerously complacent version of that history and
those relations which has been propagated in the Western world for the past
decade. Because it is intended as a corrective it may on occasions have over­
stated its case, an offence to which I can only plead guilty for I do not pretend to
be impartial about the issues with which this book deals. All that I can offer in
extenuation of those opinions expressed here which may be found disagreeable
is that they have been arrived at after a good deal of thought and are put
forward in all sincerity.
In general I have dispensed with footnotes. The origins of quotations and
statements, where they are not indicated in the text, will be apparent from the
bibliography. There are a few instances, however, where I have thought it
desirable to append a footnote, either to remove any obscurity concerning the
source of a quotation or to register a debt to a particular author. The various
acronyms used in the text are explained in the index.
I have been greatly helped in the collection of material for this book by the
librarians and staff of the library and press library of the Royal Institute of
International Affairs, and by the librarian and staff of the London Library. It
gives me a great deal of pleasure to be able to express here my deep appreciation
of the courteous assistance they have given me at all times. I owe a considerable