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Conflicts—Ethnic and Tribal Disputes

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Abstract

Here we examine two more long-standing reasons for conflicts in the Persian Gulf—ethnic and tribal. Arabs, Kurds, and Persians are the region’s three major ethnicities, with nuanced and important distinctions also along religious lines. Despite the region’s deep historic roots, the emergence of nation states is a relatively new phenomenon, created (with the exception of Iran) in the early half of the twentieth century by colonial powers from nomadic tribes in the region. We look at how ethnicity and tribal differences have affected internal relationships within Persian Gulf countries and relationships between them.

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Notes

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© 2013 Hossein Askari

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Askari, H. (2013). Conflicts—Ethnic and Tribal Disputes. In: Conflicts in the Persian Gulf. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137358387_3

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