This seminar brings you an excellent analysis on the militarisation and armament developments around the Persian Gulf.

Pieter Wezeman starts off with SIPRI's new data on military expenditure which show a big increase in the Middle East, which is mainly driven by military spending in Saudi Arabia, already at war in Yemen.

The discussion continues with looking at the standoff between the US/Trump and Iran and the rifts between some of the monarchies in the GCC, the Gulf Cooperation Council.

Speakers:

Pieter Wezeman, Senior Researcher, SIPRI

Rouzbeh Parsi, UI Associate Research Fellow, Historian at Lund University

Dina Esfandiary, Fellow at War Studies Department at King's College, London

Moderator:

Bitte Hammargren, Head of UI’s Middle East and North Africa Programme