This book focuses on the Arab Gulf region as an area with its own problems of social, economic and political development and examines the dimensions of the attempts by the governments and peoples of the area to create new social, economic and political structures - stemming mainly, of course, from new-found oil wealth. The ample availability of capital does not by itself solve the problem of formulating and implementing coherent development policies. Indeed, the fact that governments are not restrained by shortage of capital tends to throw into greater relief the other problems confronting the formulation and implementation of coherent policies, and the extent to which the social, political and economic dimensions are intertwined.

Initially presented as papers to the inaugural conference of the Centre for Arab Gulf Studies at the University of Exeter, held 9-13 July 1979."

Introduction /Tim Niblock -- Involvement and change: the coming of the oil age to Saudi Arabia / J.J. Malone -- The mode of production in the Arab Gulf before the discovery of oil / Mohamed G. Rumaihi -- Hegemony, dependence and development in the Gulf / Rosemarie Said Zahlan -- Natural resources and development in the Gulf states / Keith McLachlan -- Problems confronting the establishment of a heavy industrial base in the Arab Gulf / John Townsend -- Pastoral nomads in a rapid changing economy: the case of Saudi Arabia / Donald P. Cole -- Changes in the structure of village life in Oman / J.C. Wilkinson -- Economic and social implications of current development in the Arab Gulf: the Oriental connection / J.S. Birks and C.A. Sinclair-- Political participation and the constitutional experiments in the Arab Gulf: Bahrain and Qatar / Emile A. Nakhleh -- Federalism in the United Arab Emirates: prospects and regional implications / Naomi Sakr -- The prospects for integration in the Arab Gulf / Tim Niblock -- The Gulf between two revolutions: 1958-1979 / Fred Halliday.