Join MESF’s first lunchtime seminar of the year for a discussion between Jasim Husain (former member of the Bahrain National Assembly) and Dr Kylie Moore-Gilbert (University of Melbourne) on The Changing Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC).

Wednesday 28 February 2018
11:30am – 1:30pm
Level 2, Building BC
Deakin University Burwood campus

RSVP to mesf@deakin.edu.au by 22 February to assist with catering

Download the flyer here.

Watch the video recording of the event here.

Abstract

The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) is undergoing a profound socio-political and socio-economic transformation. Plunging oil prices led to economic reforms focussed on enhancing revenues, reducing subsidies and cutting costs, notably without enhanced political representation. At the same time, some GCC members are using their sovereign wealth to influence politics elsewhere in the world. Internationally, member states such as Saudi Arabia and the UAE welcomed the election of Donald Trump to the US Presidency following a difficult relationship with President Obama. But Trump’s election only compounded the sense of change within the GCC, leading to the emerging GCC quarrel with Qatar.

Biography

Jasim Husain was elected as a member of the Bahraini National Assembly in 2006 and 2010, and is the former Director of Economic Research Unit at the University of Bahrain. Husain’s work has been widely published, including in an Emirates Centre for Strategic Studies and Research commissioned book on merits of linking GCC currencies to other currencies, and in various The Economist Group publications. He writes weekly columns about GCC’s economic developments.

Dr Kylie Moore-Gilbert is a Melbourne Early Career Academic Fellow and Lecturer in Islamic Studies at the Asia Institute. Kylie specialises in Middle Eastern politics, with a particular focus on the Arab Gulf states. She has published on issues including GCC politics, the 2011 Arab uprisings, authoritarian governance and the role of new media technologies in political activism.