The GCC’s approach can be understood as a balance of flows rather than a balance of power. It is a collective form of strategic autonomy that favors adaptability over confrontation. Each member contributes differently. Saudi Arabia provides scale and market weight that anchor the regional economy and shape global energy expectations. The United Arab Emirates functions as a high-efficiency node that translates infrastructure into influence through its ports, airlines, and financial networks, while its active diplomacy protects critical maritime and digital routes. Qatar adds long-term energy security and a refined capacity for mediation that lowers the temperature of regional crises. Oman provides geographic depth and trusted channels that reduce risk along the Arabian Sea. Kuwait and Bahrain strengthen the system through financial and regulatory integration. Together, these roles form a resilient mesh capable of absorbing shocks without collapse.
What makes the GCC’s experience significant is that it reflects a deeper shift in how middle powers exercise agency. The emerging global order is not simply multipolar, where new centers of power replace old ones, but non-polar, where influence flows through overlapping networks rather than rigid blocs. The Gulf states operate comfortably in this environment because they pursue partnerships based on function rather than ideology. Their diplomacy is inclusive by design. It connects East and West, producers and consumers, global institutions and regional actors, without demanding alignment in political systems or values. What matters is performance and reliability, not political uniformity.
This logic extends beyond economics. It is visible in the Gulf’s cautious approach to conflict, its mediation between rivals, and its preference for de-escalation over provocation. When tensions rise in the Red Sea or the Strait of Hormuz, the instinct is not to take sides but to protect circulation. Security is understood as continuity rather than dominance. The more predictable and open the flow of trade and information, the more stable the political environment becomes. This is why Gulf diplomacy is deeply practical. It treats global order as a system that must be maintained rather than a contest that can be won.
Seen in this light, the GCC offers a model for how middle powers can pursue strategic autonomy without isolation. Autonomy does not mean detachment from global currents. It means the ability to remain functional and credible regardless of them. It means having enough flexibility, redundancy, and trust to operate across competing systems. The GCC’s success lies in its refusal to treat interdependence as vulnerability. Instead, it transforms interdependence into influence by making itself indispensable to the circulation of energy, finance, logistics, and data that hold the world together.
The United Arab Emirates embodies this principle with particular clarity. Its strategy is to secure stability through openness, to build infrastructure that connects rather than divides, and to practice diplomacy that lowers risks rather than raises stakes. The country’s experience demonstrates that connectivity itself can be a form of power that endures longer than alliances or coercion because it produces shared benefit. Yet this approach is not unique to the UAE. Across the Gulf, the same logic is visible, a quiet understanding that in a fragmented world, credibility and resilience are worth more than posture.
As global order becomes more contested, the GCC’s approach will only gain relevance. It shows that middle powers do not need to define themselves by alignment or opposition but by contribution. By keeping flows stable and channels open, they preserve not only their own security but the health of the wider system. In an age defined by turbulence, the true measure of power is not control over territory or ideology but the ability to sustain movement. The Gulf’s non-polar vision, refined through experience and pragmatism, offers one of the clearest examples of how that can be done.
The Valdai Discussion Club was established in 2004. It is named after Lake Valdai, which is located close to Veliky Novgorod, where the Club’s first meeting took place.
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