Stay updated with free updates
Just sign up at Life & Arts myFT Digest — delivered straight to your inbox.
Waiting for the Tube, I see a poster for a luxury gym chain. Locations? “City of London. High Street Kensington. Dubai.” What a shame to choose a setting that is so warped with bad taste and clueless expats. However, the City and Dubai branches must be first class.
Soon after, I am in Doha and again the Euro-Gulf connection is inevitable. Qatar’s emir returned from a state visit to Britain, where the hosts were looking for a trade deal. Switzerland-based FIFA has just awarded the World Cup hosting rights to Saudi Arabia. Even in skyscraper-less Muscat, where alleys that might have been streamlined elsewhere in the Gulf twist freely behind the cornice, three restaurants in my hotel are outposts of Mayfair brands.
What a pity that the word “Eurabia” is taken. And with such a crank. (It’s a far-right term for an alleged conspiracy to Islamize Europe.) Why would we need a word for this relationship. The Arabian Peninsula has what Europe lacks: space, natural wealth and the resulting budget surpluses to invest in things. For its part, Europe has “soft” assets that the Gulf states must acquire, host or emulate in order to gain a post-oil role in the world. This is not the Gulf’s deepest external connection. Not while 38 percent of people in the UAE and a quarter in Qatar are Indians. But it may be the most symbiotic, if I understand that word correctly.
It is true that the US has a defense presence in all six Gulf Cooperation Council states. This includes the Saudi footprint that Osama Bin Laden was not supercharged for. But daily contact? America is a 15 hour flight away. Its soft assets are either harder to buy or less sought after. Its citizens have little tax incentive to live in tax havens, as Uncle Sam charges them at least part of the difference.
In the 1970s, when OPEC profits poured into London, Anthony Burgess wrote a dystopia in which the big hotels became “al-Klaridges” and “al-Dorchesters”. What a mental jolt it was for even the most secular Europeans to see—not to be trifled with—non-white people with more money than them. However, they could agree in the Gulf that it was no place to live. Half a century later, their grandchildren would call this copy. In fact, their grandchildren may literally live there for economic opportunity. (Al-Dorado?) As a banker friend explains, time zones allow you to sleep late, trade the European markets and then dine late, so it’s the young people doing a stint in the Gulf, not the burnouts who are in my age
But for how long? It is the sheer improbability of this effort, between a culture of universal rights and monarchical absolutism, between a largely secular continent and the peninsular homeland of an ancient faith, that sets it apart from anything I can think of. A relationship can be both necessary and untenable. It wouldn’t take much – say, some violence within the GCC, which seemed imminent in 2017 – for Europe’s exposure to the Gulf to age as badly as its previous exposure to Russia. If Abu Dhabi-owned Manchester City are found to have committed financial fraud, a piece of Premier League history will be tarnished. Because it’s “just” a sport, I feel like people aren’t prepared for the backlash.
And it is extreme to assume that the relationship could only break down at one end. It’s the Gulf side that has to make the most awkward cultural adjustments. Because Europeans associate 1979 with Iran and perhaps Margaret Thatcher, they sometimes overlook the occupation of the Grand Mosque in Mecca by zealots who believed the House of Saud had softened to Western mores. The governments of the region certainly do not forget that.
How far a place can emancipate without tripping over a cultural cord occupies (and is answered differently in) each state or emirate. Everyone is very nice to “Mister Janan” at his hotel in Doha. But the metal scanners they must pass at every re-entry into the building stand as a reminder of the stakes here. I wonder if Europe and the Gulf throw so much into their connection out of a dull doubt that it can last.
Email Janan at janan.ganesh@ft.com
Be the first to know about our latest stories — follow FT Weekend at Instagram and Xand sign up to receive the FT Weekend newsletter every Saturday morning