| Publication |
2013.
|
| Summary/Abstract |
This article enters into the debate about geopolitical subjectivity between Iran and the members of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) on the three islands issue. The islands at the Western entrance to the Strait of Hormuz have so far been examined as an issue between Iran and the United Arab Emirates from historical, sovereignty and law perspectives, but this article examines the argument that the GCC has become a geopolitical subject through its support for the US policy of isolating Iran. Geopolitical subjectivity, a concept building on Pami Aalto's conceptual scheme, is the concept of goal-oriented ordering of territories and political space. We can use it to identify the GCC institution as a subject with the ability to act (and abstain from acting) and to examine Iran's response to the GCC's willingness to order the three islands. The conclusion is that the GCC became a subject in this context as soon as it felt the benefits of US support and the current rise of the soft power of Qatar. Even so, it has been unable to undermine Iran's sovereignty rights over the three islands, and the issue has strengthened, even exaggerated, states' adherence to the concept of sovereignty throughout the Persian Gulf region.
|