The idea for this volume emerged from a series of transnational collaborations that began in 2010 through a chance meeting of Rasmus Gjedssø Bertelsen and Neema Noori at an International Studies Association Meeting in New Orleans, Louisiana. At the time, Rasmus was transitioning from a post-doctorate at Harvard to a postdoc at United Nations University-Institute of Advanced Studies in Yokohama studying early 19th century intellectual exchange networks linking the United States and Western Europe with the Middle East, Japan, and China. Neema, on the other hand, had just begun working and writing about the proliferation of American-style universities and branch campuses in the Gulf. Though Rasmus’ research focus was more historically oriented, Neema and Rasmus shared a common interest in transnational higher education networks and the Middle East. With his background in small state security studies and his previous positions at the Joaan Bin Jassim Joint Command and Staff College in Doha and at Khalifa University in Abu Dhabi, fellow editor Jean-Marc Rickli played a pivotal role in encouraging us to think beyond conceptualizing universities as the central nodes in transnational knowledge networks, particularly as they pertained to the Gulf. This book, therefore, is an attempt to widen our focus beyond traditional academic institutions, and, perhaps more importantly, beyond the West as we have also solicited contributions that explore intellectual relationships that connect the Gulf to the East.

Many people have contributed to this book, both directly and indirectly, and we would like to take this opportunity to thank them. Certainly, none of this would have been possible were it not for the generous support of the Gulf Research Centre. Our gratitude also extends to our home universities, the University of West Georgia and the University of Tromsø-The Arctic University of Norway, for providing the support that enabled us to meet in the first place. We also owe a debt of gratitude to Lacey Moore, a graduate student at the University of West Georgia, who generously invested a great deal of time and energy in helping us edit and format the book chapters. Angela Turner, Amber Locke, and Jordan Smith also helped edit select chapters. Finally, we are very grateful to the participants for working diligently to refine their contributions for publication.

Please note that this was a collaborative effort. Each of the editors contributed equally to the project and the names of the editors are ordered alphabetically.

The precipitous decline in the price of oil over the past two years has served as a cautionary tale for the Gulf Cooperation Council states. Low oil prices are causing severe economic and fiscal problems for these states and threatening a socio-political order built on redistributing oil and gas rents for political allegiance. The region’s political and economic importance also make these fiscal challenges and socio-political developments a concern for countries around the world. Regional governments are aware of the immediate fiscal challenges of low oil prices and the long-term challenges of diversifying oil- and gas-based national economies. The ruling elite have for years considered developing knowledgebased economies as a means to diversify and create sustainable post-fossil-fuel-based economies. Transnational knowledge relations and talent mobility have been and remain key instruments for pursuing knowledge-based Gulf societies. This book analyzes and discusses the experiences of transnational knowledge workers in a variety of arenas including higher education, healthcare, business, and government. In pursuing this focus, this book’s contributors address two questions that are central to the region’s goals of developing a knowledge-based economy. First, is it possible to build a knowledge-based economy by relying almost exclusively on importing capacity? Second, what patterns of transnational knowledge relations are most likely to produce successful outcomes?

The forces responsible for this steep drop in oil prices, namely sluggish growth in China and other emerging economies as well as a deliberate new policy of OPEC spearheaded by Saudi Arabia to defend market share instead of price stability as a means to counter the competition of US shale oil and gas producers, have forced many GCC economies to consider policy tools that were once unthinkable and that call into question the structural nature of the rentier state. For example, Saudi Arabia has begun cutting subsidies for gas, water, and electricity and the GCC as a whole has begun to debate the adoption of a regional value added tax (Diaa, 2016; al-Hatlani, 2016). The subject of this book, which concerns the role of transnational knowledge relations in developing knowledge-based societies and economies in the Gulf, is a timely one. For the past two decades, Gulf states such as the U.A.E. and Qatar have made significant progress towards diversifying their economies: oil and natural gas make up less than 70% of government revenues in these two countries (Rickli 2014; Charles 2013a; Young 2016). This effort is clear from the great strides both nations have taken in recent decades to strengthen their capacities in education and research.