Oman's foreign policy : foundations and practice

Transcription

1 Florida International University FIU Digital Commons FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations University Graduate School Oman's foreign policy : foundations and practice Majid Al-Khalili Florida International University, Majid.Al-Khalili@fiu.edu DOI: /etd.FI Follow this and additional works at: Part of the Other International and Area Studies Commons Recommended Citation Al-Khalili, Majid, "Oman's foreign policy : foundations and practice" (2005). FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations This work is brought to you for free and open access by the University Graduate School at FIU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of FIU Digital Commons. For more information, please contact dcc@fiu.edu.

2 FLORIDA INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY Miami, Florida OMAN'S FOREIGN POLICY: FOUNDATIONS AND PRACTICE A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS by Majid Al-Khalili 2005

3 To: Interim Dean Mark Szuchman College of Arts and Sciences This dissertation, written by Majid Al-Khalili, and entitled Oman's Foreign Policy: Foundations and Practice, having been approved in respect to style and intellectual content, is referred to you for judgment. We have read this dissertation and recommend that it be approved. Dr. Nicholas Onuf Dr. Charles MacDonald Dr. Richard Olson Dr. 1Mohiaddin Mesbahi, Major Professor Date of Defense: November 7, 2005 The dissertation of Majid Al-Khalili is approved. Interim Dean Mark Szuchman C lege of Arts and Scenps Dean ouglas Wartzok University Graduate School Florida International University, 2005 ii

4 @ Copyright 2005 by Majid Al-Khalili All rights reserved. iii

5 DEDICATION I humbly dedicate this dissertation to my parents. iv

6 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I could not have produced this dissertation alone. I would like to thank the committee members for their invaluable help and advice, especially Professor Olson for his constructive criticism; Professor Onuf for his kindness, encouragement and personal attention; Professor MacDonald for his seemingly limitless patience and infectious positive attitude; and most especially, Professor Mesbahi for being my mentor and guide over the course of my studies-you were generous with your time and insights, and for these, as well as the countless discussions that have greatly expanded my knowledge-i am eternally grateful. I would also like to thank Jane MacDonald and Paola Roy for proofreading my work; the Dissertation Year Fellowship, without which this dissertation would not have been possible; as well as the Department of International Relations at FIU-I am truly grateful for the outstanding opportunities that I have enjoyed here. Good friends also have encouraged and supported me in my efforts these last few years. Thank you, Alla Mirzoyan-if not for your intelligent and practical advice, this dissertation would never have progressed as quickly as it has. I am inspired by your strength, energy and positive attitude. Thank you, Alex Barder for sufficiently diverting my attention away from the difficult task at hand with your interesting discussions in political theory. Thank you, Fabian Romero for prodding me along with your quick wit and good humor. Your solid advice, too, has served me well. Thank you, Serge Akl for challenging all of my assumptions during those long hours at the blue tables. Thank you, Andy Correa for the steaks and the good times. Thank you, Ronald, Uri and Emily for the coffee breaks. Thank you, Cecilia Novella for your gentle and patient companionship. v

7 Many thanks to my three angels Kathy, Mary, and Martha. Finally, thank you Darwish Kaiyal for being my friend. vi

8 ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION OMAN'S FOREIGN POLICY: FOUNDATIONS AND PRACTICE by Majid Al-Khalili Florida International University, 2005 Miami, Florida Professor Mohiaddin Mesbahi, Major Professor The object of this dissertation is to record and analyze the foreign policy of the Sultanate of Oman from the early twentieth century until It challenges the central assumption of the contemporary scholarship on the subject that Muscat's modem foreign policy begins in It is often presumed that the pre-1970 era does not merit a thorough investigation to understand Muscat's modus operandi today. This study argues that for a comprehensive understanding of Muscat's foreign policy since 1970, the frontier of the historical analysis of Oman's regional and international involvement should be pushed back to the 1930's, when the young Sultan Said assumed power over the country divided by the "Treaty" or the "Agreement" of Sib. Indeed, the thrust of this research lies at once in repudiating the conventional wisdom regarding both the persona of Sultan Said and the customary political/historical narrative of Said's reign. The critical analysis of this period is utilized to rebut the pervasive and largely inaccurate historical narrative of the events prior to 1970, to recount an original interpretation of the period, and to use the narrative as a preamble for subsequent foreign policy directions and initiatives. Furthermore, this dissertation covers the gaps in the literature resulting from the absence of any materials that either record or analyze Muscat's foreign policy from vii

9 1996 until In addition, his study provides new information and a fresh analysis of the international relations of the region, including great power rivalry, especially the competition between the United States and Great Britain, and the attitudes of major regional actors, such as Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Iraq. The use of a thorough historical inquiry is vital to support the central claim of this dissertation; therefore, a large section of this dissertation is based almost exclusively on archival materials collected from the British Public Records Office, the University of Oxford and the Library of Congress. This project represents the most comprehensive use of archival materials on the subject matter to date. viii

10 TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I. IN TR O D U C T IO N Approach to Analysis...3 II. THE LEGACY OF HISTORY... 4 The Geography of Oman... 4 Oman and Ibadism...8 The Arrival of the Portuguese ( )...14 The Rise of the Sultanate: Ahmad ibn Said Al-Bu Said ( )...16 Imam Sultan Ibin Ahmad ( )...17 Sultan Said bin Sultan ( )...20 The Death of Sultan Said and the Return of the Imamate III. THE REIGN OF SULTAN SAID Revisiting the Reign of Sultan Said...24 The 1950's Crisis British Objectives and Muscat's Policies Muscat between the Arab League and the United Nations...70 The Dhofar Rebellion and the End of Said's Reign IV. OMAN'S FOREIGN POLICY ( ) The Sultanate of Oman: Old and New Challenges The End of Dhofar's Rebellion The Sultanate's Strategic and Security Conceptions The Sultanate of Oman, the Iranian Revolution and the Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan The Sultanate of Oman and the Gulf Cooperation Council V. OMAN'S FOREIGN POLICY ( ) Muscat and the Gulf War ( ) Muscat and Regional Security Muscat's Policy Toward Iran and Iraq in the 1990's Muscat and Yemen The Sultanate of Oman and the Arab-Israeli Conflict Muscat, Washington and the Persian Gulf The Sultanate of Oman and September V I. C O N C LU SIO N ix

11 BIBLIOGRAPHY APPENDICES VITA x

12 I. INTRODUCTION The Persian Gulf region has been one of the most sensitive and tumultuous areas in international politics in the last three decades. Indeed, given the strategic importance of the area, its rich resources, the graveness of the Arab-Israeli conflict, and the tensions of three Gulf wars. A wealth of literature has arisen on Arab governments and politics, ideology and state building, political evolution and intellectual trends, is instantly recognizable. Yet, as Korany and Dessouki point out in Foreign Policy of Arab States (1991), the literature on the foreign policy of Arab states is notably lacking. Hinnebusch and Ehteshami reach a similar conclusion in their Foreign Policies of the Middle East States (2002). If this inopia exists for such major regional states like Egypt, Syria, and Saudi Arabia, the dearth of studies on Oman's foreign policy can hardly be surprising. British expatriates have dominated the literature on Oman (Phillips 1967; Townsend 1977), and their writings are fascinating testaments to the complexities of Oman's history. They offer valuable insights. Nonetheless, they remain the products of participant-authors, especially British soldiers serving Sultan Said during his campaign to quell the Imamate challenge of the 1950's and to resolve the war in Dhofar. This literature, however, is less about Oman than it is about its military operations and the intricacies of counter-insurgency (Akehurst 1982; Smiley 1960, 1975; Fiennes 1995). John Peterson's Oman in the Twentieth Century (1978) and John Wilkinson's The Imamate Tradition of Oman (1987) arguably constitute the most important works on 1

13 Oman. Both, however, only touch on Oman's foreign policy, and even Calvin Allen's Oman: The Modernization of the Sultanate (1987), only allocates ten pages to Muscat's external relations. Carol Riphenburg's Oman: Political Development in a Changing World (1998), devotes a chapter to Oman's foreign policy, but relies exclusively on secondary source, especially Anthony Cordesman (1997) and Joseph Kechichian (1995). Even the most recent book on Oman by Calvin Allen and Lynn Rigsbee II (2000) contains only an elementary chapter on Oman's foreign policy. Dissertations are not helpful either. They tend to focus on 1) Oman's history in Africa (Bhacker 1994), 2) the political economy of the Sultanate (Alabdulkarim 1997), and 3) British and American involvement in Oman (Rigsbee II 1990; Timpe 1991; Gawlik 1982; Fehmi; 1967). One exception is Kechichian's study on the Sultanate's foreign policy Oman and the World: the Emergence of an Independent Foreign Policy (1995), which chronicles the Sultanate's external relations between 1970 and Kechichian recounts Oman's major challenges: 1) facing the insurgency in Dhofar, 2) relating to the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), 3) reacting to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, 4) avoiding sides in the Iran-Iraq War, and 5) positioning itself in the Arab-Israeli conflict. His conclusion emphasizes that Oman has practiced an unusually "independent" foreign policy. Despite its value, Kechichian's study cannot avoid the shortcomings symptomatic of the literature on Oman: the almost total absence of analysis of the foreign policy of the periof of Sultan Said (the father of the present Sultan and ruler of Oman from the 1930's until his overthrow in 1970). Interestingly, it appears that the period shaped Omani foreign policy more than it is generally appreciated. 2

14 In sum, we see little substantial treatment of Oman's foreign policy in the early or formative period ( ) and even less-literally nothing-on its foreign policy after Therefore, the purpose of this dissertation is not only to revisit and reanalyze the foreign policy of the Sultanate of Oman from early twentieth century through the mid-1990's, but also to extend the account through Approach to Analysis This study will examine published materials on Oman and include the literature of various academic disciplines such as international relations, history, geography, sociology, and diplomatic history. English and Arabic sources will be consulted in this dissertation. The unique contribution of this dissertation lies in the extensive use of primary sources including archival materials collected by the author at the British Public Records Office, the Middle East Center at the University of Oxford, and the Library of Congress. Significantly for the reader, the archival references will be footnoted indicating the title, the year, and when possible, the author of the source. 3