The combination of military and economic leadership within the Gulf Cooperation Council will keep it unified through a trying economic and political time.
(KARIM JAAFAR/AFP/Getty Images)
As in any boom and bust cycle, low oil prices are affecting the behavior of oil-dependent states globally, prompting them to diversify and to privatize their oil assets to limit their losses. The GCC states -- Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, and Oman -- are among the most oil and natural gas dependent economies in the world, and though they have long discussed and made progress on economic reform, there is now a renewed urgency behind their efforts, especially given the recognition that oil prices could remain low for the next five years or longer....
