In perioada 23 - 25 mai 2012, Presedintele IRSEA, ambasadorul (p) Gheorge Savuica, a participat la "1st International Conference on the Environment and Geopolitics of the Persian Gulf ", eveniment desfasurat pe insula Qeshm din Iran. Printre participanti s-au numarat in special membri ai cercurilor academice iraniene, precum si numerosi studenti, masteranzi si doctoranzi din Iran. Lucrarile conferintei au fost axate pe subiecte din domeniul relatiilor internationale si protejarii mediului inconjurator.
Presedintele IRSEA, impreuna cu un cercetator al institutului, a prezentat lucrarea intitulata „The Persian Gulf and International Security”.
Redam lucrarea sustinuta la conferinta de reprezentantii IRSEA
THE PERSIAN GULF
AND INTERNATIONAL SECURITY
By
Ambassador (R) Gheorghe SĂVUICĂ*
and Victor STOIAN*
- Abstract -
The Persian Gulf region holds tremendous strategic importance in world geopolitics, as both its large oil and gas reserves, coupled with being one of the most vital international commercial routes, bring forward the need for concerted and transparent policies oriented at guaranteeing its security.
Taking into consideration the fact that the region has always been the centre of attention for traders, businessmen and world powers, we might say that the Persian Gulf aria and the South East Asia region share equal importance.
This paper examines perceptions on security of the Gulf, what could be considered as priorities for the region, and focuses on constructive parallels with the South East Asia region, which can serve as a model approach for economic regional cooperation and, in a later stage, for political, strategic and military aspects concerning the Persian Gulf region.
We believe that a secure Persian Gulf, based on a joint system of broad political and regional cooperation, implemented through mutual trust and confidence, as well as transparency among the regional states, will substantially contribute to building and sustaining international security.
Key words: regional security, international security, security models, Persian Gulf, ASEAN, Treaty of Amity and Cooperation.
1. Introduction. The Persian Gulf in world Geopolitics – energy source and gateway for global energy
The Persian Gulf region represents, as some geopolitical theories put it, the heartland, the core axis merging Europe, Africa, South Asia and South East Asia. It is also drawing its strategic importance from an inherent energetic value, as more than 63 per cent of the world’s reserves of crude oil and 40 per cent gas resources lay in the region.
In addition, approximately 20 per cent of the world’s seaborne oil shipments and 25 per cent of the world’s daily oil consumption pass through the only sea passage out of the Gulf, the Strait of Hormuz (Camp & Harkaway 2004, 187-190)
This region connects the three continents of Asia, Europe and Africa and, being an extension of the Indian Ocean, is an important element of the commercial system linking the Mediterranean Sea, the Red Sea, the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean. A special role inside this mechanism belongs to the Strait of Hormuz, which in fact, has led the countries needing fossil material to perceive the Persian Gulf region geostrategically significant in the first place (Dikshit 2004, 196).
The commercial-energetic ambivalence, complemented by the emergence of large international business and finance centers in the Gulf, assures a humongous importance to guarantying security of the Persian Gulf, starting from the premise that the international differences between views are not over the need of security itself but over how this security should be achieved and ensured in the region (Sajedi 2009, 77-89).
International dependence on the Gulf’s energy resources has internationalized the need for a regional security system, making it a part of a more global projection, that often times has been mistaken for an outsourcing of security on behalf of the Gulf States. It was actually this western acute need for Gulf oil, which changed entirely the geopolitical landscape of the area (Chapman and Khanna 2006, 507-519).
The advent of Islam also took place in the Persian Gulf region and its culture has been founded on the principles of Islam. It has come to be known as the centre of the Muslim world.
Even from the start, we can assess that the dependence of a large part of the industrialized world on the fossil energy provided by and through the Persian Gulf and the cultural and religious value of the extended area are imperatives that demand the safekeeping of the region.
2. Security models in the Persian Gulf. Short history focused on security
In the aftermath of WWI The British Empire and France, encouraged by the non-interventions of Russia (torn by civil war) and United States (isolated at the time) took on themselves to create new states on the grounds of former territories of the Ottoman Empire.
As a proto-security system, by mandate rule, Britain successfully deployed and supported military units in key regions, but ultimately was forced to relinquish the stage to other powers, in the context of growing Pan-Arabism.
In the power void that followed, the United States gradually increased their influence in the Persian Gulf, establishing strategic air bases in the region, dispatching a powerful navy force to the Mediterranean Sea and procuring regional defensive pacts.
The US also tried to promote what they considered to be internationally integrated security systems for the region, as were the Baghdad Treaty and the CENTO Treaty (Amirah - Fernández 2011, 49-67).
Starting with 1971, influenced by the war in Vietnam, the US promoted the “Twin Pillar Strategy”, establishing alliances with two regional powers – Iran and Saudi Arabia – that were aimed at reaching a security balance in the Gulf.
In this manner, Iran and Saudi Arabia were given an immense responsibility for the guaranteeing of security in the region, though in this tandem Iran had a more significant role due to its military caliber and its geographical neighboring of the Soviet Union.
The victory of the Islamic Revolution of Iran was the turning point of United States forged security systems in the Persian Gulf. After it, the US started once again assuming a “direct responsibility strategy”, creating rapid reaction forces while signing joint defense pacts with regional states (Reza Simbar and Arsalan Ghorbani Sheikh Neshin 2011, 97).
Afterwards, a new switch was brought on by Iraq’s attack on Kuwait, which represented the starting point for the implementing of the “dual containment” policy. As a result, the U.S. increased the number of its military bases in the region and tried to convince Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) member states to organize themselves as a joint military force; similar to NATO (the idea was not realized).
Following the September 11 attacks, the US adopted a strategy of attaining absolute security through pre-emptive measures and a global struggle against terrorism and the factors behind it. This perspective led to the Gulf’s current security system, based on US preparedness to continue military presence in the region and prevent wars in which Weapons of Mass Destruction would be used.
3. The Persian Gulf from regional to international security
3.1. In our opinion, assuring regional security in the Persian Gulf is more than needed and opportune as it could substantially contribute to sustaining international security. For this desiderate a joint system of broad political and security regional cooperation, based on confidence-building measures, has to be constructed by and for the Gulf States.
Mutual trust and confidence, as well as transparency among the regional states, must become the main pillar on which combating terrorism, supporting stability for Iraq and ultimately securing the region have to rely (Dugulin 2010).
By identifying common interests and differences, regional actors can reach grounds for better cooperation on which to fundament their development, imposing a “collective security” frame or “one for all and all for one” template to achieving security in the Persian Gulf region (Morgenthau 2006).
We think that the recipe for achieving and implementing a security model for the Persian Gulf could start with the understanding by the parties involved that inter-dependence is both the motivator and the common nominator in the process.
3.2. Considering the background of today’s multi polar world, the first step is to overcome the dilemma at hand, which consists of a collection of issues that have to be tackled, amongst which, the most important seem to be:
- Recalibration of US involvement in the region – currently American security commitment to the Arab Gulf states and long term military deployment in the region are at substantially higher levels than at any time in history (Gause 2010);
- Constructive participation of The Islamic Republic of Iran as a key element of stability and security in the area;
- The rebuilding of a viable Iraqi state that will limit interference by other powers and will block escalation of Kurdish-Turkish issues, reducing the likelihood of future military and political intervention in northern Iraq;
- Facing the growing trend of asymmetrical threats, including terrorism;
- Overcoming the distrust and suspicion that have long time prevailed as dominant factors in inter-Arab and intra-regional cooperation;
- Handling the impact of emerging tensions, crisis and regional conflicts, including Turkish operations regarding the PKK challenge in Iraq and Kurdistan, various tensions amongst Arab states in the Gulf, tensions between India and Pakistan (especially regarding Kashmir), the threat of piracy and other crisis generating aspects;
- The roles played by other internationals actors, like European countries (either through EU, NATO, or individual), Russia, China, India, in order to connect the regional security system to an international complex;
- The domino effect of military build up in the Gulf countries;
- Non-exclusion of other security problems that are adjacent to the extended region, like the conflicts in Afghanistan and Pakistan;
- Identifying optimal solutions for complementary participation to the security mechanism, as past incongruous associations in the regional system, have proven a conflict generating nature.
3.3 Based on know how accumulated by other geopolitical entities we can start assessing possible inspirational patterns for a regional security structure by canvassing the following alternatives:
The NATO model, based on the roles of two NATO institutions that might be instructive in the Persian Gulf region – Partnership for Peace (PFP) that has proved to be highly effective in enabling states that emerged from the wreckage of the Soviet Union, the Warsaw Pact, and Yugoslavia to develop the tools of military modernization and cooperation and The Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council that provides a forum in which any of these countries can raise their security concerns, especially concerns about each other. Another NATO effort, the coordination of measures for disaster relief through the Senior Civil Emergency Planning Committee, could also provide a model for cooperation among Persian Gulf states;
The EU model, with emphasis on European experience in terms of conflict – and tension-reduction through economic cooperation;
The idea of A Conference on Security and Cooperation for the Persian Gulf (CSCPG), a forum that could be patterned on the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE), which was designed to help reduce tensions during the Cold War, when different countries wanted to explore ways of cooperating even during a time of basic geopolitical and ideological conflict. Indeed, CSCE proved to be a critical part of the process of bringing the Cold War to an end;
An Association of Persian Gulf Nations, molded after the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), with ten member states, based on the concept of ASEAN’s Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia( TAC), which incorporates 18 non-ASEAN members, including the United States, Russia, France, China, Brazil (acceded in March 2012), and the EU ( will accede in April 2012);
The Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC). All potential regional members of a Persian Gulf security structure belong to the OIC, which includes a start up mechanism for the peaceful settlement of disputes and a convention for combating international terrorism. There are elements of OIC policy and practice that could be useful in developing a security structure for the Persian Gulf (Hunter 2010).
3.4. By taking into consideration the strategic importance and the natural resources attraction within the extended region, we might say that the Persian Gulf aria and the South East Asia region are equally important.
There are a lot of similarities between the two, but there is also a huge difference. South East Asia is already an advanced secured part of the world, which entered partnership dialogue with Asian and Western countries. This occurrence is due to ASEAN’s approach, initially and exclusively to economic regional cooperation and in the later stage to political, strategic and military aspects concerning the entire region.
Also, by 2015 these countries are going to establish the ASEAN Community based on three pillars: ASEAN Political - Security Community, ASEAN Economic Community and ASEAN Social – Cultural Community.
The ASEAN was created in 1967 by five founder members and now it has ten members and a robust linkage, based on a solid partnership dialogue, with all world players. ASEAN is the driving force of regional integration as well as inter regional connections, such as ASIA - EUROPE Meeting (ASEM).
The South East Asian countries managed to identify their problems and common interests, and on this ground they signed the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation (TAC) in 1976. Ultimately, accession to this Treaty became a precondition for non- ASEAN member countries asking to be admitted into the East Asia Summit (EAS) – the latest integration concept of Asian countries. We have mentioned above some countries that acceded to TAC.
What can be qualified as amazing is the fact that TAC is mainly based on the old Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence, known in India as the Panchsheel.
The specific channel for political and security dialogue is ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF). It was established by ASEAN in 1994 to maintain peace and stability in the region and to promote regional development and prosperity. It was recognized that rapid development in the regional and global environment had impacted on the security and strategic concerns of countries in the region. Itwas also acknowledged that the region was remarkably diverse, and that there remained challenges to regional peace and prosperity. Besides the 10 ASEAN member countries, ARF enjoyed the participation of Australia, Canada, China, UE, India, Japan, The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Republic of Korea, Mongolia, New Zealand, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, The Russian Federation and the USA.
The 27th ASEAN Ministerial Meeting (1994) stated that “The ARF could become an effective consultative Asia-Pacific Forum for promoting open dialogue on political and security cooperation in the region. In this context, ASEAN should work with its ARF partners to bring about a more predictable and constructive pattern of relations in the Asia Pacific.”
On the tenth year of the ASEAN Regional Forum, the ARF Ministers met in Phnom Penh (18 June 2003) and declared that “despite the great diversity of its membership, the forum had attained a record of achievements that have contributed to maintenance of peace, security and cooperation in the region”. They cited in particular:
- The usefulness of the ARF as a venue for multilateral and bilateral dialogue and consultations and the establishment of effective principles for dialogue and cooperation, featuring decision-making by consensus, non-interference, incremental progress and moving at a pace comfortable to all;
- The willingness among ARF participants to discuss a wide range of security issues in a multilateral setting;
- The mutual confidence gradually built by cooperative activities;
- The cultivation of habits of dialogue and consultation on political and security issues;
- The transparency promoted by such ARF measures as the exchange of information relating to defense policy and the publication of defense white papers;
- The networking developed among national security, defense and military officials of ARF participants.
Indeed, during all years of its existence and acting according to its objectives the ASEAN Regional Forum managed to foster constructive dialogue and consultation on political and security issues of common interest and concern, and to make significant contributions to efforts towards confidence-building, preventive diplomacy, maintenance of peace, security and cooperation in the Asia-Pacific region.
We believe that for a Persian Gulf regional security frame, the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation and the ASEAN Regional Forum could be the most suitable pattern to follow. This system is an excellent and effective combination between the regional and world players and it is already well integrated into the international security system.
4. The Islamic Republic of Iran’s key role in securing the Gulf
Iran, which historically, geographically, economically and from a strategic point of view represents the key to regional stability and security, has recently known an ascendancy that is the defining new feature of the geopolitical context of the Gulf and arguably of the Middle East as a whole.
By any objective measure – territory, population, strategic location and energy assets, Iran has long been a major Gulf power.
Home to a five-thousand-year-old civilization, Iran has a surface area of 1 648 196 square kilometers bordering the Caspian Sea Republic of Azerbaijan, Armenia, Turkmenistan and Georgia to its north, Afghanistan and Pakistan in the east, Turkey and Iraq in the west, and the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman in the South. Iran is located in the heart of most of the world’s oil and natural gas reserves.
With these features, the Islamic Republic of Iran occupies the area where Europe, Africa and Asia meet, being directly affected by events on all of those continents.
The Islamic Republic of Iran has always held a huge stake in the security landscape of the region, and has sustained continuous involvement in the matter – during the 1990s the Iranian approach to the Persian Gulf was to improve ties with states on the southern side of the body of water, support international decisions in the war against Iraq, and more importantly step up efforts to multiply its foreign policy. The aforementioned were all indication of Iranian leaders’ will to participate in regional security arrangements based on a doctrine of self-reliance.
The foreign policy of The Islamic Republic of Iran, with regard to the security geopolitics of the Persian Gulf includes emphasis on regional convergence and cooperation and indigenous security building, which could be considered as a main security plan in the Persian Gulf region.
In this respect, sustainable and peaceful relations should be established among the states of the region, and this security model should naturally include all states located in the region (Reza Simbar and Arsalan Ghorbani Sheikh Neshin 2011, 91-116).
Regarding The Islamic Republic of Iran’s approach to regionalization, the renowned Iranian scholar Kayhan Barzegar, argued in Iran Review (2010) that the inclusion of a regionalist approach in Iran’s foreign policy “is the key to realizing Iran’s national and security interests”. However, such regionalist strategy must be based on a careful calculation of “various geographic-geopolitics, historical-civilization, and political-security approaches of the country’s foreign policy. It should also be centered on establishing relations with various geographical regions, political-security and economic sub-systems” (Sevilla 2011, 46-67).
Under these conditions, and with the United States’ exit from Iraq, The Islamic Republic of Iran has the legitimate chance to assume the role of “filling the gap”, as Prof. Mohammad Mehdi Mazaheri puts it, and to engage in extensive political and economic interactions with the Persian Gulf states and international community in order to lead the establishment of a new integrated regional security system.
Iran’s participation in the development and implementing of a sustainable security model that would ensure stability and peace in the region, based on cooperation and growth of natural relations among the states of the region, will surely contribute to the efficiency and sustainability of an international oriented Persian Gulf security system.
Concluding reflections
- Due to the Persian Gulf international importance, we can find reassurance in the fact that the main differences between views regarding Gulf security, are not over the need of security itself but over how this security should and will finally be achieved and ensured;
- Regional security in the Persian Gulf, empowered by a joint system of broad political and security regional cooperation, based on confidence-building measures, could substantially contribute to sustaining international security;
- Amongst current most important issues that need to be settled for achieving security in the gulf are: recalibration of US involvement in the region, the need for constructive participation of The Islamic Republic of Iran as a key element of stability and security in the area, the rebuilding of a viable Iraqi state, managing the growing trend of terrorism, handling the impact of emerging tensions, crisis and regional conflicts and military build up in the Gulf countries;
- The main alternatives and frames that can be imported for a regional security structure are: the NATO model, the EU model, the idea of A Conference on Security and Cooperation for the Persian Gulf (CSCPG), an Association (Forum) of Persian Gulf Nations, molded after the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC);
- Based on a multitude of similarities between the two areas, the South East Asia region, with its Treaty of Amity and Cooperation and ASEAN Regional Forum, could be an inspirational model for the construction of a Persian Gulf security structure;
- The Islamic Republic of Iran’s active and participative involvement in the creation and perpetuation of a multilateral security frame for stability and peace in the region is a key element that will ensure the efficiency and sustainability of an internationally oriented Persian Gulf security system.
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* Gheorghe SĂVUICĂ is a Bahasa speaking specialist on South East Asia, founder and chairman of the Romanian Institute for European – Asian Studies (IRSEA). He was Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Pakistan and Indonesia and Charge d’Affaires a.i., with Letter of Cabinet, to Malaysia, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Cyprus and Finland/Estonia. By retiring on pension, in 2006, after 40 years of diplomatic activity, he founded IRSEA, chaired by him, and the Chamber of Commerce and Industry Romania - Malaysia, chaired by him up to February 2012.
* Victor STOIAN, researcher for the Romanian Institute for European – Asian Studies (IRSEA), has a BA in History and Law and a MA in International Security Studies from the University of Bucharest
