Deconstructing the Gulf Crisis: Post-Colonialism and Competing ‘Projects’ in the Middle East

Abstract

This article deconstructs the stated reasons behind the quartet’s blockade on Qatar, including i) Iranian-relations; ii) funding ‘terror;’ iii) supporting ‘political Islam’ –Hamas, Muslim Brotherhood, etc.; and iv) destabilizing the Arab world through Al Jazeera, and scrutinizes their veracity. In actuality, these accusations are mere obfuscation. Henceforth, understanding the quartet’s motivation requires employing post-colonialism as an explanatory variable. It does so by assuming the preponderance of U.S. military power in the GCC produces three conflicting ideal-types: i) Saudi-led quartet Arab project, ‘subservient’ to U.S. hegemony; ii) Iranian- led partisan project, resisting/increasing engagement to U.S. hegemony; iii) Turkish-led ‘civic Islam’ project, pivoting from engagement to resisting U.S. hegemony. In this, three-rivalry is the roots of the blockade and the larger meta-strategy at behind the blockade.