Where Do the Gulf States Go From Here?

I cut my teeth as a Middle East scholar in places such as Damascus, Syria; Ramallah in the West Bank; Ankara, Turkey; Istanbul, and Cairo. They are cities with rich histories or great political influence or both. The Persian Gulf states were always an afterthought, better left to odd-duck Europeans who spent their time studying the lineages of various tribes and clans throughout the Arabian Peninsula. To me, that kind of work was even worse than watching cricket. But in the past decade, I have found myself in the Gulf more frequently than I had ever imagined. Don’t get me…