Economic Prospects for Iraq and its Neighbours in the Aftermath of the Gulf War

Abstract

Only time will tell whether the coming decades in the Middle East will be more peaceful than the last half-century, but there does seem to have been a change in opinions and priorities among both governments and peoples in the region. More attention is being given to economic matters, not least because of the realization that influence and power are more likely to be underpinned in the long term by strong economic performance than through military effort alone. It is not so much a matter of naïvely assuming that the regimes and peoples have turned their back on war, and taken the peace path, although there is a weariness with conflict. It is, rather, the understanding that war has brought few gains for most of the states of the region, and that it is perhaps time to pursue a different course.