Oman: Politics and Society in the Qaboos State

by Marc Valeri

When Sultan Qaboos overthrew his father as ruler of the Persian Gulf state of Oman in 1970, with the help of British advisers, few expected him to survive long. He was unknown to his own population, and the country was poor and plagued by civil wars. Yet he has built his regime's legitimacy on a policy of national unification, the assimilation of all of Oman to the oil rentier state framework, and of his state to the person of the sultan, the incarnation of the country's "renaissance." This books seeks to understand the mechanisms of social and political perpetuation of authoritarianism in post-colonial states such as Oman. It shows how one monarchical power has built and constantly renewed its basis to meet the internal and external challenges threatening its stability. Yet this book also raises the question of what happens when one part of this model, namely an oil-rent economy, falters, with half the population under fifteen years of age and when the privileges enjoyed till
recently may no longer be tenable. Valeri also sheds light on the strategies adopted and challenges faced by other Arab monarchies in the Persian Gulf, Morocco and Jordan.

Genres: Politics, History, Nonfiction

256 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2009

Reviews

[shayma · Rating 4 out of 5]

i try to avoid reading books by white men but this was an experience. i’m in my last week of u*derg*ad and this is my first time strolling a library for resources for a research project instead of browsing online (advised by my professor). i grew up learning bits, pieces and fragments of omani history but this helped place my knowledge in alignment. very very insightful, interesting and engaging. it’s one thing to feel oman as a bodily experience and another to read about its history from books! i know Sheikh and Dr. Sultan Al-Qassemi has written extensively about trucial oman and i would love to learn from his books as well inshaAllah <3

[Shaun · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very solid and fascinating overview of Omani politics. All in all written very clearly even if very much an academic text.

Some of the tribal/cultural background stuff is complicated but Valeri does a great job in laying things out and the book's summary of the early history of what would become Oman (especially in regards to the early rivalry between the Imam & the Sultan), the development of Oman into an actual state after the 1970 and overall post-1970 political development was illuminating.

As an undergrad student just dipping their toes into Middle East studies (and who actually had to play as the new Sultan Haitham in a MENA politics sim), I really wish I'd been able to read this in its entirety earlier as it helped me personally with some aspects of the domestic situation (and how on earth Qaboos managed to hang on to power for so long) and the domestic situation the new sultan has inherited.

[R.Alsouli · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Sultan Qaboos has had to create among the inhabitants of this territory a feeling of belonging to a common "imagined community ".