Columbia International Affairs Online: Working Papers

CIAO DATE: 07/2012

Bahrain and the global balance of power after the Arab Spring

Lars Erslev Andersen

June 2012

Danish Institute for International Studies

Abstract

The global balance of power is changing, and the role of the US as the only superpower is being challenged by emerging new powers and a still more powerful China. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the Persian Gulf. This Working Paper by DIIS researcher Lars Erslev Andersen argues that if we are fully to understand the developments in the Persian Gulf we need to analyze the Persian Gulf as a regional security complex in its own right. The argument is developed empirically with reference to the case of Bahrain.