The Burke Chair at CSIS is issuing a new report called the Gulf Military Balance in 2012. The report shows that the Gulf military balance is dominated by five major groups of military forces: the Southern Gulf states, Iran, Iraq, outside powers like the US, and non-state actors like the various elements of Al Qa’ida, the Mahdi militia, and various tribal forces.
These forces are evolving in many ways. Iran now presents a major threat in terms of its asymmetric and proxy warfare assets, its growing missile arsenal and its potential nuclear capability. The growing political unrest and instability in the region is creating new internal security challenges. Domestic unrest in countries like Yemen could create new threats that cross the Saudi and Omani borders. The threat of terrorism has so far been contained, but remains all too real and has driven many regional states to make major increases in their paramilitary, security and special forces
This report is available on the CSIS web site at: http://csis.org/publication/gulf-military-balance-2012.
