Abstract This article examines the evolution of Gulf security architecture in the context of the Iran War and the growing uncertainty over the long‐term role of the United States as principal external security guarantor of Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) member states. It analyzes the long‐standing debates over alternative security arrangements, including GCC‐centered defense integration, broader mechanisms of cooperative security, and more novel options like a regional nonaggression framework. The study demonstrates that the GCC has never been an effective collective defense institution due to enduring structural constraints and a range of exogenous and endogenous factors: aversion to ceding sovereignty to a supranational body; major differences across the member states; smaller members’ fears of domination by Saudi Arabia; and the complexities inherent in military integration. The findings indicate that, despite the crisis precipitated by the Iran War, the structural obstacles that historically prevented the emergence of an autonomous Gulf security and defense arrangement remain largely intact.
Abstract Political Islam in Iran is frequently portrayed in Western scholarship and policy discourse as a unified and rigid ideological system rooted in the 1979 Islamic Revolution. However, this article contends that it operates as a plural and internally contested field in which state‐directed, reformist‐clerical, and civic interpretations compete over religious authority and political legitimacy. The study shows how revolutionary doctrines became embedded in political institutions while Islamic meanings have been produced through an array of practices, including sermons, clerical writings, protests, and digital activism. It then examines key moments of rupture, including the 2009 Green Movement and the 2022 Mahsa Amini protests, to show how women, youth, and reform‐minded clerics mobilized Qur'anic ethics and Shi'i moral memory to challenge coercion and authoritarian governance. The analysis thereby reframes Islam as a language of justice, dignity, and moral accountability. The article elucidates the implications of Iran's religious plurality for international engagement.
