ASSESSMENTS

The GCC Counts the Costs of Its Conflict

Nov 2, 2017 | 09:30 GMT

The leaders of the Gulf Cooperation Council gather for their annual summit in 2005.

The annual Gulf Cooperation Council summit is slated for December. But nearly five months into the blockade that Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, along with Egypt, imposed on Qatar, it's unclear whether the conference will happen as scheduled -- or at all.

(RABIH MOGHRABI/AFP/Getty Images)

Highlights

  • The blockade on Qatar will make economic integration — a perennial struggle for the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) — all the more difficult.
  • The longer the blockade continues, the more the GCC's cohesion will be at risk.
  • Though the GCC's members share similar economic and security concerns that lend themselves to common solutions, each individual state's domestic priorities will prevent it from focusing on the good of the bloc as a whole. 

The annual Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) summit is slated for December. But nearly five months into the blockade that Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, along with Egypt, imposed on Qatar, it's unclear whether the conference will happen as scheduled -- or at all. If the GCC calls off this year's summit, or if Qatar sits it out, the cancellation would mark the first time in the bloc's history that a disagreement has prevented the annual meeting. If, on the other hand, the six member states pull together to hold the conference as planned, the meeting will offer a glimmer of hope that the bloc can weather the current crisis as a cohesive entity. The feud has revealed the cracks in the GCC's veneer of unity and disrupted relations not only in the bloc itself, but also in the region. It has not, however, interfered much with the Gulf...

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