Rami Khouri of the Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs notes the unprecedented phenomenon of the "instant" cities of the Persian Gulf which, for all their wealth, lack civil societies.
"In the world of nation-states, the small Arab emirates and states of the Persian Gulf have been peculiar beasts since their birth in the middle of the last century, in the wake of the retreating British. Their transformation into glittering, bustling city-states in a matter of decades has been impressive - and perhaps unprecedented in the history of civilization.
The gulf city-states' chosen course of breakneck speed and foreign-manned socio-economic development and their brand of overnight nationalism anchored in cities that barely existed decades ago deserve analysis in their own right, and also for what they might teach other Arab countries.
These dazzling centres of seemingly endless growth are defined by massive new public and private building projects, hundreds of soaring towers and towns built virtually overnight. At the same time, these are countries without politics, and are largely devoid of any civil society institutions where citizens can gather in various associations to debate, analyze and advance their own societies."
FULL STORY: The gulf city-states are dazzling oases of growth but, oddly, no politics
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