Money, Markets and Monarchies: The Political Economy of the Contemporary Middle East | SOAS

Money, Markets and Monarchies: The Political Economy of the Contemporary Middle East was a seminar given by Dr Adam Hanieh (SOAS University of London) at the Department of Development Studies, SOAS University of London on 15 October 2019. Find out more at

In Money, Markets and Monarchies, Adam Hanieh examines how the six states of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) are powerfully shaping the political economy of the wider Middle East. Through unprecedented and fine-grained empirical research – encompassing sectors such as agribusiness, real estate, finance, retail, telecommunications, and urban utilities – the book lays out the pivotal role of the Gulf in the affairs of other Arab states and asks what this might mean for the future of the region. This vital feature of the Middle East’s political economy is essential to understanding contemporary regional dynamics, not least of which is the emergence of significant internal tensions within the Gulf itself.

Adam Hanieh is a Reader in Development Studies at SOAS. His research focuses on the political economy of class and state formation, with a geographical emphasis on the Middle East. He is the author of three books, most recently Money, Markets, and Monarchies: The Gulf Cooperation Council and Political Economy of the Contemporary Middle East (Cambridge University Press, 2018), which has been shortlisted for the 2019 International Political Economy Group (IPEG) Book Prize of the British International Studies Association.

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