Security

With the Iran war, large AI projects now sit inside a regional battlespace. The next phase of Gulf AI strategy will need to focus on resilience, continuity, and trusted infrastructure, not only capital and scale.

On April 30, AGSI hosted a special reception honoring the diplomats and staff recently evacuated from the U.S. Embassy in Kuwait.

As Iranian strikes exposed structural gaps, Gulf states are expanding their air defense architecture through new suppliers, lower-cost systems, and operational partnerships.

The blockade, artfully deployed, and a focus on coalition building, international law, and interests-based negotiations can help the United States and its Gulf allies extricate themselves from the current impasse.

Operation Epic Fury has delivered tactical gains without a viable strategic end state. The Strait of Hormuz remains effectively closed, Iran’s leadership has reorganized, and the diplomatic track has fractured.

In the future landscape of Gulf security, the United States may remain an essential arms supplier but wield less influence over force structure and military doctrine.

When transportation insurance withdrew from Gulf waters, it triggered an agricultural supply chain shock whose effects will reach crop yields in South Asia, sub-Saharan Africa, and Latin America within a single growing season.

Regardless of the outcome of ongoing U.S.-Iranian negotiations, Gulf states are likely to speed up the diversification of their defense partnerships, including with each other, though many hurdles have yet to be overcome.