Kenneth Katzman - Research Service of the United States Congress, Washington DC

Nearly three years after the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime at the hands of the US military, no clear Persian Gulf alternative security architecture is in place.1 In the absence of a security structure, the Persian Gulf Cooperation Council (PGCC: Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, and Oman) states feel increasingly vulnerable to a multiplicity of threats to their stability and their resources. The threat profile is unexpectedly ominous in light of the fall of Saddam Hussein, who had previously been viewed as the greatest challenger to Persian Gulf security and whose downfall was expected by the Bush Administration to pave the way for a "golden age" of automatic and effortless Persian Gulf stability. Yet, many of the Persian Gulf states now feel more vulnerable than ever, even if they face no systematic violence or clear internal threats at this time.