The concept of security for policy makers has been a contested but a crucial issue within its classical definitions. In the early years of modern nation states, security studies were considered with “the pursuit of freedom from threat and the ability of states and societies to maintain their independent identity and their functional integrity against forces of change, which they see as hostile”. In the Cold War period, the rivalry between two mutually exclusive systems (American capitalism and Russian socialism) had narrowed the concept of security to a mostly military focus dominated by the arms and technology races. With the end of the Cold War, however, new paths in the new world system inevitably led to the emergence of new approaches in security studies. The framework of security has been newly defined with broader concepts than in the classical understanding of security. As proclaimed by Barry Buzan; security studies now must wrestle with a new puzzle that has five sectors: Political, Military, Economic, Societal, and Environmental.

Nevertheless, despite this academic evolution in the understanding of “security” in world politics, for some countries the concept of security remains a hard and primarily military term. Along these lines, for the Gulf Countries (GCC members specifically), the concept of security primarily means spending a significantly greater share of their GDP on the military than the global average. However, “the possession of standing armies and sophisticated weaponry is in itself insufficient to guarantee security and stability” for the Gulf countries especially. Since the end of the Cold War, the rise of primarily non-military sources of potential insecurity is profoundly reshaping the security paradigm for these states in both the medium and longer term. Thus, the new security perspective, with Buzan's five different but integral sectors, is significant for a comprehensive security analysis of the Gulf States. In the light of these new factors, it is crucial to ask: How prominent a role will the new sectors play in Gulf security? What are the obstacles for the Gulf States in integrating societal, environmental and economic security as well as political and military issues into their overall concept of security?

In order to analyze these questions, this chapter examines general security problems and the application of new integrative security policies in Gulf states, starting with theoretical assumptions based on the Copenhagen School framework of five sectors of security.