| Summary/Abstract |
THE PARADIGM of international relations in the Persian Gulf in the 20th century was determined by the interests of major players: the US, Great Britain, the USSR, etc. At the same time, relations between the oil-producing monarchies of the region, for all their complexity and ambiguity, remained in the background. After the creation of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) in the early 1980s, opportunities emerged for a serious integration process that could lead to the creation of a single economic space with a single currency and common governance structures. However, for a number of reasons - among which we will identify economic ones (similarity in export structure), dynastic ones (ambitions of the ruling families), and geopolitical ones (the desire of the US as the world hegemon to rule according to the "divide and rule" policy known since antiquity) - centripetal trends have given way to centrifugal ones. Moreover, the second decade of the 21st century as a whole was marked by the gradual departure of the main global player, the US, from the traditional doctrine of firm control to using "controlled chaos" tools to give regional players the opportunity to realize their own political ambitions, while the US mainly focused on protecting its key military, political, and economic interests.
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