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The limits of authoritarian solidarity: The Gulf monarchies and preserving authoritarian rule during the Arab Spring

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2026

Daniel Odinius  and
Philipp Kuntz
Daniel Odinius*
Affiliation:
Bamberg Graduate School of Social Sciences (BAGSS), Germany
Philipp Kuntz
Affiliation:
Institute for Diaspora and Genocide Research, University of Bochum, Germany
*
Address for correspondence: Daniel Odinius, Bamberg Graduate School of Social Sciences (BAGSS), University of Bamberg, Feldkirchenstraße 21, 96045 Bamberg, Germany. Tel.: +49 (0) 951‐863‐2477; E‐mail: daniel.odinius@uni-bamberg.de
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Abstract

Scholars have recently begun to examine how authoritarian rulers cooperate with each other in order to fend off popular challenges to their power. During the Arab Spring the states of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) supported fellow authoritarian regimes in some cases while backing opposition movements in others. Existing theoretical approaches fail to explain this variation. Advancing the study on authoritarian cooperation, this article develops a theoretical approach that sets out to explain how authoritarian regimes reach their decisions. Drawing on poliheuristic foreign policy analysis, it argues that perceptions of similarity serve as a filter for estimating threats to regime survival at home. If regimes perceive the situation in other countries as similar to their own, supporting other authoritarian regimes becomes the only acceptable strategy. In contrast, if perceptions of similarity are low, regimes also consider other options and evaluate their implications beyond the domestic political arena. Applying this framework to the example of the GCC states during the Arab Spring, the analysis reveals covariation between perceptions of similarity and threat among GCC regimes, on the one hand, and their strategies, on the other.

Keywords

authoritarianismforeign policyrevolutionArab Spring

Information

Type
Forum Section: Authoritarian Collaboration
Information
European Journal of Political Research , Volume 54 , Issue 4 , November 2015 , pp. 639 - 654
Copyright
Copyright © 2015 European Consortium for Political Research

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