This handbook provides a cutting edge and comprehensive overview of the contemporary Persian Gulf. It includes sections on history, economic development, domestic and regional politics, security, society and culture and international relations.

The Routledge Handbook of Persian Gulf Politics provides a comprehensive and up-to-date analysis of Persian Gulf politics, history, economics, and society. The volume begins its examination of Ottoman rule in the Arabian Peninsula, exploring other dimensions of the region's history up until and after independence in the 1960s and 1970s. Featuring scholars from a range of disciplines, the book demonstrates how the Persian Gulf's current, complex politics is a product of interwoven dynamics rooted in historical developments and memories, profound social, cultural, and economic changes underway since the 1980s and the 1990s, and inter-state and international relations among both regional actors and between them and the rest of the world. The book comprises a total of 36 individual chapters divided into the following six sections: Historical Context Society and Culture Economic Development Domestic Politics Regional Security Dynamics The Persian Gulf and the World Examining the Persian Gulf's increasing importance in regional politics, diplomacy, economics, and security issues, the volume is a valuable resource for scholars, students, and policy makers interested in political science, history, Gulf studies, and the Middle East.

'In this magisterial volume, Mehran Kamrava brings together some of the world's foremost experts to shed light on one of the most important - yet widely misunderstood - regions of the world. Interrogating dislocations in political, economic, social, geopolitical and cultural realms, this is required reading for anyone desiring a better understanding of the Persian Gulf.'-Simon Mabon, Director of the Richardson Institute, Lancaster University, UK 'Mehran Kamrava has assembled a sterling list of authors, a mix of veteran analysts and younger academics who are fresh from the field. The volume helps to define the study of the politics of the Persian Gulf region for some time.'-F. Gregory Gause, III, Head of International Affairs Department, The Bush School, Texas A&M University, USA