Book Review: Troubled Waters: Insecurity in the Persian Gulf, Mehran Kamrava (Cornell U. Press 2018)

Abstract

While the Persian Gulf region is no stranger to turmoil, recent developments have focused on Qatari citizens and residents who have been living under diplomatic and economic sanctions imposed by Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Egypt. This blockade of Qatar on June 5, 2017, is another example of the persistent instability of the Persian Gulf region, and proves the need for an answer to the central premise of Troubled Waters: Insecurity in the Persian Gulf, which is posed in the first line of the Introduction: “Why is the Persian Gulf so chronically insecure?” (p. 1). Author Mehran Kamrava’s extensive expertise in Middle Eastern politics proves invaluable in the analysis of the “troubled waters” of the Persian Gulf. The book focuses on factors contributing to ongoing conflict and instability in the region. It was against the backdrop of the blockade of Qatar and the use of—for the first time in the Arab Gulf region—cyber warfare, Twitter bot armies, and a misinformation campaign designed to create a narrative about Qatar’s role in financing terrorism, that I began reading the book.