First Gulf Research Meeting The first annual Gulf Research Meeting took place from July 7 to 10, 2010 at the University of Cambridge. The Gulf Research Meeting is an activity of the Gulf Research Centre at Cambridge. The meeting seeks to provide an academic environment to foster Gulf studies and to promote scholarly and academic exchange among scholars working and/or having familiarity with the Gulf region - i.e. the countries of Bahrain, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen. Read more..

Why the EU, for all its Problems, is still a Model for the Arab World By: Abdulaziz Sager
Source Name: Europe's World

The European Union (EU) both as an institution and in light of its historical development has on numerous occasions been mentioned as having a possible model character for the Gulf region, specifically as far as the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) is concerned. Abdulaziz Sager, Chairman of the Gulf Research Center, examines to what degree this comparison applies and what both sides can learn from one another. Read more..

Al Jisr Third Research Project Workshop A third research project workshop on the challenge and potential of economic growth and diversification in the GCC. A team of specialized researchers from both regions will be constituted and given access to all resources in the hands of the project’s partners. Once again, the strategy to establish such partnerships will prove to be precious as the resources and expertise of each partner will be fully used. The research project workshop will deliver a number of integrated future scenarios to judge the region’s regional and international economic role as well as the shifting functions of state and business in it. Read more..

Meeting with the General Secretary of the UN Dr. Mustafa Alani, Director of the Security & Defense Department at the Gulf Research Center met with the General Secretary of the United Nation Ban Ki Moon as part of the delegation to discuss the problem of international terrorism on May 18, 2010 at the UN Headquarter in New York. Read more..

EIR&A Annual World LNG Outlook: 2010 - 2011 Senior Analysts Ian Nathan, Philip Shaw and Rana Samaha provided a critical look at drivers behind the rapid growth in this sector of the gas industry, as well as the short term and long term outlooks on both the supply and demand side. LNG in the medium term is faced by the reality of a global gas glut, which has created a buyer’s market of LNG as the launch of new liquefaction ventures against sluggish gas demand during the global economic contraction. The presentation was followed by a panel discussion... Read more..

The EU-GCC Partnership: Security and Policy Challenges This policy brief takes a close look at the status of regional security cooperation in the critical Gulf region, highlights the main current security challenges, and outlines a series of steps that could be taken to improve or even help establish more institutional security cooperation among both the regional and external actors that have a stake in a stable regional security environment. A particular focus is to create ideas and formulate recommendations on how the EU-GCC partnership could deal with these. The recommendations draws on presentations and discussions that took place at a conference on Gulf Security that took place in Berlin in March 2010 and combines them with the overall findings of the al-Jisr and related research projects. Read more..

The Gulf takes charge in the MENA region The Gulf has emerged as the new leading player in the Arab world in the 21st century. However, the crisis has dealt a serious blow to the region’s economy and the prospects of integration. The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) complained of not being consulted by the EU over the Union of the Mediterranean, but has failed to offer MENA countries an equivalent alternative. The GCC is undoubtedly the only part of the Middle East with the resources to mitigate rising political and economic pressures that afflict the region through increased and more efficient allocation of development funds and investments to foster job creation. To succeed, Gulf donors need completely to rethink their engagement in the region, moving away from merely facilitating loans and grants towards in-country development assistance programmes. Read more..