World: Profiling the Gulf States

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Kuwait is politically and economically the most advanced of the gulf states. It became a constitutional monarchy after it gained its independence from Britain in 1961. In 1976, the 50-member National Assembly was suspended, but last month the Crown Prince and Prime Minister, Sheik Saad al Salah, announced that the assembly would be restored in February, after general elections. The move to bring back parliamentary life is a clear bid to contain rising discontent.

In fact, much power will probably remain within the Chamber of Commerce, where Kuwait's so-called 14 families, the country's business elite, congregate to debate policy. It is this oligarchy that many young Kuwaitis find unacceptable. Although per capita income for Kuwait's 1.5 million people is $15,000 a year, there have been complaints, largely from academics, that 95% of the wealth goes to only 5% of the population.

UNITED ARAB EMIRATES. For centuries the tribes along the southern gulf coast embodied the essence of Araby. Bedouins roamed the desert in the vast inland stretches of Abu Dhabi. Savvy merchants turned Dubai into a notorious smuggling port. A great seafaring tribe, the Qawasim, ruled Sharjah and dominated the gulfs coastal routes until feudal intrigue and British colonial meddling fractured their holdings into independent emirates.

Today the same people incarnate modern Arab lore emerging from the magic elixir of oil. The oil price boom in 1973 began barely two years after seven gulf emirates—Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah, Ajman, Umm al Qaiwain, Ras al Khaimah and Fujairah—set aside tribal quarrels to form a loose federation. The cornucopia of oil money has yielded perhaps the highest per capita income in the world for Emirates citizens (in excess of $100,000 a year) and created a cradle-to-grave welfare state. But the Emirates face the most serious population imbalance in the region: of a population of 900,000, fully 80% are foreigners.

BAHRAIN. The first oil producer in the Arabian peninsula, this island nation has come to grips with the fact that its wells, now pumping only 50,000 bbl. a day, will soon run dry. It is rapidly transforming itself into the service and financial center of the gulf. More than 120 banks have opened offices in Bahrain with an eye on the ballooning revenues of the oil producers. But some 70% of the population (250,000) is under 20 years of age, and there have been rumblings against the absolute rule of Sheik Isa bin Sulman al Khalifa, who has decided to reopen the National Assembly.

QATAR. Throughout the 4,400-sq.-mi. desert peninsula in eastern Arabia, the land does not rise higher than 360 ft. above sea level; the average annual rainfall is a scant 4 in., falling mostly in short cloudbursts in winter. Slowly, with great care, a modern state is being built. Qatar is one of the lesser oil producers in the gulf (411,000 bbl. a day), but the population is also small (250,000, of whom only 60,000 are native Qataris). The country has been found to have vast natural gas reserves, though at current prices development is considered uneconomical. Still, the sheikdom has taken steps to diversify by developing petrochemical, shipping and steel industries. "We do not want to be a short-range country," says Saeed Mis'hal, a Palestinian who heads the Industrial Development Training Center.