Leiden University Student Repository

Waldenberger, Afra (2020)

Environmental Protest Movements in the Gulf

Bachelor thesis | International Studies (BA)

Climate change is the most pressing threat to our planet and activism has been formed to urge policymakers to counter the effects of climate change and to stabilize the climate. Globally, environmental protest movements have been formed, yet the Middle East shows significantly little environmental activism. This thesis focuses on governance of the Arab Gulf States and identifies the rentier-state and its dependency on oil as the main driver of the non-existence of environmental protest movements. The regime’s repressive nature hinders civil participation and therefore prevents activism at its core. Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates serve as examples of this observation.

rentier-state

environmentalism

social movements

state repression

Author

Waldenberger, Afra

Faculty

Faculty of Humanities

Specialisation

Middle East

Supervisors

Yenen, Alp

ECTS Credits

15

Language

en