The Gulf and the Struggle for Hegemony: Arabs, Iranians, and the West in Conflict
About The Event
**Please note the speaker for this event has changed. The previous speaker Robert Worth was granted a rare visa as a Western journalist to enter government-held Syria. His talk for the Council has been postponed to the fall. The Council is delighted to host Dr. Roby Barrett for this event.**
The various states of the broader Persian Gulf are often simply and mistakenly viewed from Western-centric perspectives or as mere products of their petroleum wealth. In reality, each state has their own differing objectives and are developing in their own unique manner. It can also be argued that ‘for 250 years the traditional Gulf monarchies have proven to be more stable and enduring than the imperial Persian-Iranian model or the defunct Western-style republics of the region’. Dr. Roby Barrett will survey the varying histories of the Gulf States; and what the present and future might hold, including the impacts of the wars in the region, any possible changes in their models of governance and the different rivalries and alliances within the region.
About The Speaker
Roby Barrett, Ph.D. is the president of a consulting firm, specializing in defense and security technology applications and systems including nuclear issues, police-border security, command and control, and weapons acquisition issues. He is a former Foreign Service officer and a graduate of the Foreign Service Institute’s intensive 2-year Arab Language and Middle East Area Studies program as well as the Counterterrorism Tactics and Special Operations courses. Barrett is a Senior Fellow with the Joint Special Operations University and the Air Force Special Operations School. He was an Eisenhower-Roberts fellow of the Eisenhower Institute in Washington D.C., a Rotary International fellow at the Russian and East European Institute at the University of Munich, a Scottish Rite Research fellow at Oxford University.
Barrett was a guest speaker at the Bahrain MOI Gulf Security Forum, at the opening of the King Abdullah Special Operations Training Center, and the Bahrain SOF Conference. He also supported numerous military units including the 5th Special Forces Group, 101st Airborne both in the U.S. and Iraq, Naval Special Warfare Command both in the U.S. and the Arabian Gulf, 4th Psychological Warfare Group, and 19th Special Forces Group. He received: his B.A. and M.A. from Texas A M University – Commerce; another M.A. from Baylor University; and his Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin.
Dr. Roby Barrett’s book, The Gulf and the Struggle for Hegemony: Arabs, Iranians, and the West in Conflict, will be available for purchase and signing at the event.