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Al Jazeera Center for Studies published, as part of the Al Jazeera series, a book entitled Armament programmes in the Gulf and its neighbourhood [Baramej at-tasalluh fil-Khalij wa al-jiwar] by Dr Abduljaleel Zaid al-Marhoun.
The book provides an intimate account of the role of armaments in the Arabian Gulf region, policies surrounding weapons, and armaments’ programmes. The author includes Iraq, Iran, Yemen, India, Pakistan and Israel as part of this region and its neighbourhood.
The book consists of an introduction, seven chapters, a conclusion and biographical information on the author. Chapter One covers armament programmes in Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) member states. Subsequent chapters discuss armament and military spending in Iraq, Iran, Yemen, India, Pakistan, and Israel respectively.
The author seeks to explore the presence of armaments in the Arabian Gulf region through an analysis of the main trends in modern defence studies. The first trend covers the study of military doctrines, state or territorial security theory, and the concepts of war – local, regional, conventional and nuclear. The second trend focuses on the defence policies of states, alliances and regional groups, and is based on an analysis of the geopolitical environment, identification of threats, the military doctrine, the size of armies and their methods of deploying land, naval, air and aid defence units. The third trend relates to armament programmes, and focuses on studying topics such as military spending options, increasing the size of active military forces and importing weapons and military equipment from local or external manufacturers.
Synopsis (back cover)
This research is an attempt to depict the status quo and future prospects of the armament programmes of states in the Arabian Gulf region, focusing on the parties that influence or are being influenced by these programmes. Despite the technical nature of the study, the conclusions and implications of the research are of a political nature.
The Arabian Gulf region has, in the past decade, witnessed an active trend towards increasing armaments. In this period, Gulf countries have received abundant arms and ammunition supplies from a diversity of sources, mostly in Europe and the USA.
At the same time, states in the region have witnessed varying levels of manufacturing of military hardware. The Gulf States have currently reached very high levels of defence expenditure, both in absolute figures and in terms of their ratio to GNP. Air force fighter jets and related weapons have constituted the lion’s share of military imports into the region in the past decade, particularly in the last five years, followed by land weapons, especially tanks and military vehicles.
Book details
Title: Armament programmes in the Gulf and its neighbourhood
Author: Dr Abduljaleel Zaid al-Marhoun
Publisher: Al Jazeera Center for Studies and Arab Scientific Publishers Inc.
Number of Pages: 175
Date: January 2012
Cover design by Sameh Khalaf
Cover image: www.freeimages.co.uk
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