Karen Young explores two issues central to the future of development in the broader Middle East region in this book. First, how Gulf economic statecraft is affecting and will affect the development trajectory of the countries that receive Gulf aid and investment. Second, how the Chinese and Gulf development models and policies in the region both challenge the Washington consensus and compete with each other. The book is a welcome primer to how to understand these key issues.

F. Gregory Gause, Texas A&M University, USA

This meticulously detailed and extraordinarily timely analysis of economic statecraft in the context of the Gulf Arab States sheds valuable light on the political motivations and policy tools that are reshaping patterns of aid, development, and investment strategies across the Middle East and North Africa at a time of enormous volatility and great uncertainty in the global economic and energy landscape.

Kristian Ulrichsen, Rice University, USA