The shock discovery of oil in the Gulf States thrust them from relative obscurity to the forefront of international finance and politics. It coincided with the breakdown of the international monetary system and the twin food and energy crisis, all of which helped to magnify the impact of the oil price increases. Yet, despite the continuing oil wealth enjoyed by the Gulf States, their economy has suffered some damaging blows in the recent past. The Iran-Iraq War has imposed a heavy burden on the Gulf countries which have contributed huge sums to Iraq. Internally, the Gulf economies have...

This volume, first published in 1987, is devoted to a discussion of interrelations of the economic base with the cultural, social and political structures, and of its impact on the state. The rentier states of the Middle East, which derive a substantial part of their revenue from foreign sources in the form of rent, largely oil revenues, face the same basic problem, the challenge of transforming their economies to give increased strength to productive activity and rely on its progress to increase state revenue from domestic sources. This book, Volume Two in the "Nation, State and...