The Sultanate of Oman is often described by the international media as a peaceful exception in the turbulent Middle East. Most authors studying Oman’s history and politics agree that discretion, consultation, peaceful neighborhood relations and independence from the greater powers operating in the region have been the constant elements of the country’s contemporary foreign policy. Moreover, it is widely argued that Oman’s foreign policy approach derives from the country’s national identity, including its Ibadi tradition and the cosmopolitan character of the Omani maritime history. Despite the extensive use of terms like a “non-aligned” or “neutral” foreign policy deriving from a “tolerant” or “peaceful” identity, both by academics and journalists to describe the country’s behavior, a careful reflection on the appropriate application of these concepts to the Omani case is still missing. The aim of my research is to deconstruct essentialist understandings of Oman's identity and foreign policy, by looking at how discursive alignments and identity contents varied to support the government's quests for legitimacy, recognition, and status. By adopting a Discourse Historical Approach (DHA), the work compares the National Day speeches and the UN GA speeches under the entire reign of Sultan Qaboos bin Said Al Bu Saidi (1970 – 2020), to look at how discourse changed based on the time, issue, and audience of reference. More broadly, this research seeks to provide an underexplored perspective on Oman’s foreign policy, at the same time contributing both to the theoretical debate on small states’ alignments and to the discussion on the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states’ foreign policies and identities.

(Re)presenting Oman: A Discourse-Historical Analysis of Sultan Qaboos bin Said's (non-)alignments (1970-2020)

Daga, Giulia
2023

Abstract

The Sultanate of Oman is often described by the international media as a peaceful exception in the turbulent Middle East. Most authors studying Oman’s history and politics agree that discretion, consultation, peaceful neighborhood relations and independence from the greater powers operating in the region have been the constant elements of the country’s contemporary foreign policy. Moreover, it is widely argued that Oman’s foreign policy approach derives from the country’s national identity, including its Ibadi tradition and the cosmopolitan character of the Omani maritime history. Despite the extensive use of terms like a “non-aligned” or “neutral” foreign policy deriving from a “tolerant” or “peaceful” identity, both by academics and journalists to describe the country’s behavior, a careful reflection on the appropriate application of these concepts to the Omani case is still missing. The aim of my research is to deconstruct essentialist understandings of Oman's identity and foreign policy, by looking at how discursive alignments and identity contents varied to support the government's quests for legitimacy, recognition, and status. By adopting a Discourse Historical Approach (DHA), the work compares the National Day speeches and the UN GA speeches under the entire reign of Sultan Qaboos bin Said Al Bu Saidi (1970 – 2020), to look at how discourse changed based on the time, issue, and audience of reference. More broadly, this research seeks to provide an underexplored perspective on Oman’s foreign policy, at the same time contributing both to the theoretical debate on small states’ alignments and to the discussion on the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states’ foreign policies and identities.
25-lug-2023
Inglese
Abdolmohammadi, Pejman
Università degli studi di Trento
Trento
303
File in questo prodotto:
File Dimensione Formato  
Daga Giulia_PhD Thesis.pdf

embargo fino al 24/07/2025

Dimensione 4.19 MB
Formato Adobe PDF
4.19 MB Adobe PDF

I documenti in UNITESI sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.

Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14242/92925
Il codice NBN di questa tesi è URN:NBN:IT:UNITN-92925