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Geopolitical Subjectivity in Iran-GCC Relations: The Three Islands Issue Since 1979

2013; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 18; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/14650045.2013.769961

1557-3028

Fatemeh Shayan,

Socioeconomic Development in MENA

Abstract This article enters into the debate about geopolitical subjectivity between Iran and the members of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) on the three islands issue. The islands at the Western entrance to the Strait of Hormuz have so far been examined as an issue between Iran and the United Arab Emirates from historical, sovereignty and law perspectives, but this article examines the argument that the GCC has become a geopolitical subject through its support for the US policy of isolating Iran. Geopolitical subjectivity, a concept building on Pami Aalto's conceptual scheme, is the concept of goal-oriented ordering of territories and political space. We can use it to identify the GCC institution as a subject with the ability to act (and abstain from acting) and to examine Iran's response to the GCC's willingness to order the three islands. The conclusion is that the GCC became a subject in this context as soon as it felt the benefits of US support and the current rise of the soft power of Qatar. Even so, it has been unable to undermine Iran's sovereignty rights over the three islands, and the issue has strengthened, even exaggerated, states' adherence to the concept of sovereignty throughout the Persian Gulf region. Notes 1. My special thanks to my adviser, Professor Pami Aalto, at the University of Tampere, Finland, for illuminating feedback on several drafts of this article. Also, I wish to thank Dr. Sirke Mäkinen at the University of Tampere for commenting on the first draft of the article, the editor of Geopolitics, Professor David Newman, and anonymous referees. All errors and omissions, however, are my responsibility alone. 2. The Gulf Cooperation Council could be suggested as a subject with sufficient military power to preserve the member states' sovereignty rights. The GCC institution is governed by a Supreme Council of the six heads of its member states, with a rotating presidency; the Ministerial Council of the foreign ministers of the GCC states; and the Secretariat General whose members are chosen from the citizens of the GCC states. All speak on behalf of the GCC institution (The Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf, 'The Charter', 2012, available at , accessed 3 Jan. 2012), so their statements, speeches and interviews, as well as the documents on the website, all represent the subjectivity of the GCC institution's representatives. There is no expectation of the institution to become so strong a subject that it could wield power in the Persian Gulf region as the EU institutions do in Europe, since their power status and organisation is different. 3. T. R. Mattair, The Three Occupied UAE Islands: The Tunbs and Abu Musa (Abu Dhabi: Emirates Center for Strategic Studies and Research 2004) pp. 253–324; R. Schofield, 'Book Review: T. R. Mattair, The Three Occupied UAE Islands: The Tunbs and Abu Musa, Abu Dhabi: Emirates Center for Strategic Studies and Research 2004, Middle East Journal 62/1 (2009) pp. 182–184. 4. F. S. Al-Saud, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf: Power Politics in Transition (London: I.B. Tauris 2004) pp. 80–100. 5. H. Amirahmadi (ed.), Small Islands, Big Politics: The Tonbs and Abu Musa in the Persian Gulf (New York: St. Martin Press 1996) p. vii. 6. R. Schofield, 'Anything but Black and White: A Commentary in the Lower Gulf Islands Dispute', in L. G. Potter and G. G. Sick, Security in the Persian Gulf: Origins, Obstacles, and the search for Consensus (Hampshire: Palgrave 2002) pp. 172–176. 7. For example, see G. Gause III, 'Saudi Arabia's Regional Security Strategy', in M. Kamrava (ed.), M. Kamrava (ed.) The International Politics of the Persian Gulf (New York: Syracuse University Press 2011) pp. 170–180; G. Gause and I. A. Lustic, 'America and the Regional Powers in a Transformation Middle East', Middle East Policy 19/2 (2012) pp. 1–9. 8. J. D. Sidaway, 'Geography of Development: New Maps, New Visions', The professional Geographers 64/1 (2012) pp. 49–62. 9. D. Held and K. Ulrichsen, 'Editor's Introduction: The Transformation of the Gulf', in D. Held and K. Ulrichsen (eds.), The Transformation of the Gulf: Politics, Economics, and the Global Order (Abington: Routledge 2012) pp. 14–17. 10. G. Power, 'The Difficult Development of Parliamentary Politics in the Gulf: Parliaments and the Process of Managed Reform in Kuwait, Bahrain and Oman', D. Held and K. Ulrichsen (eds.), The Transformation of the Gulf: Politics, Economics, and the Global Order (Abington: Routledge 2012) p. 42. 11. P. Aalto, 'A European Geopolitical Subject in the Making? EU, Russia and the Kaliningrad Question', Geopolitics 7/3 (2002) p. 148. 12. V. Harle, The Enemy With a Thousand Faces: The Tradition of the Other in Western Political Thought and History (Westport: Praeger 2000) pp. 1–14. 13. The author would like to thank Mr. Paul Auchterlonie, and other staffs in the Middle East Documentation Unit Library and the Gulf Centre at the University of Exeter for their kindness during my visit there in June 2011. Here, also, I would like to thank EM 527, whose editorial contribution is warmly acknowledged. 14. P. L. Toye, 'The Lower Gulf Islands: Abu Musa and the Tunbs', in R. N. Schofield (ed.), Arabian Geopolitics 2: Regional Documentary Studies (London: Archive 1993) pp. 14–15; K. Ahmadi, Islands and International Politics in the Persian Gulf: Abu Musa and the Tunbs in Strategic Perspective (Abingdon and New York: Routledge 2008) p. vi. 15. Ahmadi (note 14) pp. 180–182. 16. M. O'Keefe, 'US Military Bases and Anti-Americanism', in B. O'Connor and M. 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