Fencing the Desert: Contexts and Politics of the Gulf Border Walls

The borders of the Gulf states reflect neither historical development nor equitable demographic and geographic distribution. Rather, they were mainly generated by colonial powers for political and economic purposes. This artificial delimitation created new national identities and left many territorial disputes between the Gulf states and their neighbors, which still affect their bilateral relations and the regional subsystem. Security threats and suspicious relations between the Gulf countries have prompted them to unilaterally secure their borders with physical and virtual walls. The first border wall in the Gulf was erected by Kuwait after its liberation from the Iraqi invasion in 1991. After that, the number of border walls in the region has doubled. Today, the Gulf is the most walled region in the world. It is, in fact, a complex border fencing that applies to both external and internal regional borders. In addition to security and political reasons, these walls reflect how these borders were created and how the gulf states themselves were established. Despite the large expenditures on these border fortifications, their effectiveness in achieving security remains controversial.