Oil and Arab Civil War

22 May 2025. From 18:30 | Conference | English | IEMed

Inter-Arab relations are plagued by numerous conflicts between neighboring countries, civil wars, and several failed states. These are frequently discussed as separate, independent conflicts. However, in this lecture, we will argue that this proliferation of conflictual situations is the manifestation of a single Arab Civil War, which is rooted in the unresolved conflict between oil-rich and oil-poor countries in the region (a paradigm dating back to the book by Malcolm Kerr and El Sayed Yassin “Rich and Poor States in the Middle East”, 1982). This conflict overlays and combines with sectarian and ethnic segmentations, but is rooted in the shift of the balance of power from populous, historically well-established, but poor countries; to rich countries with small populations and shallow historical roots. Due to the close political interdependence that is unique to the region, different regimes in individual countries inevitably intrude in each other’s affairs. While the people of the region clearly aspire to greater respect of human rights and political participation, the countries of the Gulf support authoritarian solutions in all neighbours and fail to address the need for regional economic integration, preferring massive reliance on expatriates from non-Arab countries and a global economic orientation that deepens regional contrasts rather than assuaging them.

A lecture by Giacomo Luciani, Professor in Interdisciplinary Studies at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva and former co-director of the Executive Master in Oil and Gas Leadership (2011-23) at the same Institute. He is also Scientific Director of the Master’s Degree in International Energy of the Paris School of International Affairs at Sciences-Po. Professor Luciani has been a Princeton University Global Scholar (2010-13), and a Senior Advisor to the Gulf Research Centre, where he served as the Team Leader in the EU-GCC Clean Energy Network Project. His research interests include Political economy of the Middle East and North Africa and Geopolitics of energy. His work has focused primarily on the economic and political dynamics of rentier states and issues of development in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries. He is a member of the Oxford Energy Policy Club, the Geneva Petroleum Club, and the Energy, Oil and Gas Club of the Institut Français du Pétrole (IFP). Some of his most relevant publications include: When Can Oil Economies Be Deemed Sustainable (ed., Palgrave Macmillan, 2020), Political Economy of Energy Reform: The Clean Energy-fossil Fuel Balance in the Gulf (ed., Gerlach Press, 2014), and Security of Oil Supplies: Issues and Remedies (ed., Claeys and Casteels, 2013)..

A session within the framework of the Aula Mediterrània lecture series co-organised with Master’s Degree in International Relations, Security and Development, UAB

Moderated by Olivia Glombitza, Lecturer in International Relations, faculty of Political Science and Sociology, UAB.