Political Science

The Gulf region remains one of the worlds most important suppliers of energy. Its massive wealth of oil resources makes the Gulf region a particularly important one in a world which remains heavily dependent on oil for industries, transport, and domestic use. With all this potential however, the region has been characterized by incessant conflicts for regional supremacy. The Gulf Cooperation Council, whose members are Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, is involved in a silent battle pitting Saudi Arabia and Iran for regional supremacy.  While Saudi Arabia has been more willing to open up her markets to the GCC members and the West, Iran remains not only defiant, but also loathe of the West. And while Saudi Arabia is guaranteed of security aid from the USA in case of attack by anti-USA states or groups from the region, Iran has to build its own security machinery and has spent billions of US dollars on its nuclear program which is suspected to be intended to produce nuclear weapons. It is unlikely that the Arab oil sheikdoms would want to stand against the rest of the world, a position which the Iranian leadership seems to enjoy.

Saudi Arabia has been willing to modernize and build relationships with other states, including the West. Iran, on the other hand, has chosen to remain largely traditional and suspicious of the West. It is possible to modernize a traditional society but this comes with the risk of destabilizing the society. To reduce chances of destabilizing such a society, the modernization process needs to be gradual to ensure that members of the society do not suffer shocks. Secondly, the agents of change must not be conspicuous (particularly if they are outsiders) and should make the members to believe that the change is initiated and driven from within and not imposed from outside. The risk of resistance declines siginificantly when a society believes that it is in full control of the change process.
Reducing U.S. dependence on imported oil.

The USA remains overly dependent on oil for its industries and transport. Past events including the 2001 terrorist attacks and the Gulf Wars have shown that the U.S. is vulnerable to oil supply disruptions and unstable oil prices. The U.S. therefore has every reason to develop long term and short term solutions to its problem of imported oil dependence. One of the long term solutions would be to require auto-makers to produce engines whose fuel economy or efficiency must reach a certain standard. Sport utility vehicles and other brands which consume much more fuel than other makes would be required to conform to the set fuel economy standards.

Secondly, the U.S. government should invest and provide incentives for the exploration and exploitation of cleaner sources of energy. Although there has been increasing use of solar and wind energy across the country, the government must take deliberate steps to encourage widespread use of these renewable and cleaner sources of energy (EPA, 2006). Additionally, the government must re-focus its effort on nuclear energy.

Feasibility of democracy in Afghanistan and Iraq
Afghanistan and Iraq have not achieved democracy, much less stable democracy. One of the reasons advanced by the U.S. for initiating its military assault on the two countries was to establish democracy in Saddams Iraq and an Afghanistan whose citizens were at the mercies of the infamous Al-Qaeda. Seven years and thousands of lives later, the U.S. is sending more combat troops to the two countries to help stabilize the situation. While the iron-fisted Saddam Hussein and the Al-Qaeda may have made life difficult for the Iraqis and Afghanis, Americans have not made it much better.

Part of the reason why the US has been failing since 2003 is that the military advisors presumed that all Iraqis and Afghanis were enemies to be vanquished before anything else happened. The U.S. did not take into account that some Afghanis and the Iraqis were as tired the dictatorial leaderships as the U.S. Instead of strengthening these groups or gathering information from such people, the U.S. relied on its superior firepower and treated all the people alike. This attracted hatred and suspicion from both anti-US groups as well as those who would ideally have supported the U.S. cause. The U.S. should have gathered better intelligence and integrated the local people in its war on the bad elements. Democracy is very feasible in Afghanistan, Iraq and other countries just as it is feasible in the West. However, democracy must be viewed as a process and not a stage. Secondly, democracy must be developed from within. No one country, however powerful, can impose democracy on another. The process of building democracy is gradual and must be spearheaded from within and not from outside.