Down to the Usual Suspects: Border and Territorial Disputes in the Arabian Peninsula and Persian Gulf at the Millennium

Abstract

Many of the contemporary headlines dealing with Arabian land boundary issues (with the exception, perhaps, of the Saudi-Yemen boundary question) should be seen in a regional context in which states are striding actively to finalize the political map. It should be remembered that the majority of Arabian states have experienced full independence only very recently and that, in most cases, territorial limits have had to be negotiated and finalized. Indeed, the relevance of the postmodern discourse on territory and boundaries to this area seems spurious at best. Never mind de-territorialization (as some would argue is occurring within the European context) or re-territorialization (as has clearly occurred with the collapse of empire and the rise of ethno-nationalism in the Caucasus and the former Yugoslav federation); the prerequisite process of territorialization has not yet been completed among the states of the region. While four GCC states have fully implemented that regional organization’s customs union agreement—in a sense, a step toward de-territorialization—the eastern three-quarters of the boundary between Saudi Arabia and Yemen has only just been established, and the Oman—United Arab Emirates land border remains to be absolutely finalized.

This paper was written in the spring of 2000. Since that time, there have been important developments, such as the conclusion of a Saudi-Yemeni boundary treaty in June 2000 and, more recently still, the issue by the International Court of Justice of an award for the Bahrain-Qatar maritime boundary in March 2001. These developments are covered in the conclusion to this chapter.