Terrorism, Gulf Security Palestine: Key Issues for an EU-GCC Dialogue

Abstract

This paper deals with security and international affairs as a dialogue subject between the EU and GCC. The EU, and EU governments, cannot escape the need to address security issues and international affairs in their dialogue with the GCC states. First, covering those issues – and in particular Gulf security and the Arab-Israeli dispute – is a long-standing desideratum of these states. Second, apart from their intrinsic importance, they are also connected to the other interests of both sides (including European aims on GGHR). Third, this need has only been made more acute by the events of 11 September 2001 and after. It is now Europe itself, as well as the US, that has been raising the security issue of fighting the Al-Qaida network. Popular reactions in much of the Arab and Muslim world, and reactions of the GCC governments themselves to attempts to bring them in as active members of an international coalition against Al-Qaida and the Taliban, have served to highlight more starkly than ever the long-standing imperative to address two key concerns of the GCC regimes.