EU-Gulf energy and migration alliances deepen neocolonial dependencies, obscuring systemic instability drivers
Original framing: “Italian PM says the Gulf is ‘fundamental’ for Europe’s security” — Al Jazeera
The original framing omits the historical context of European colonialism in the Gulf, the role of Western arms sales in regional militarization, and the exploitation of migrant labor in Gulf states. It also ignores the climate crisis’s impact on Gulf water security and Europe’s reliance on Gulf fossil fuels, as well as the perspectives of Gulf civil society and migrant workers. Indigenous knowledge on sustainable water management and non-Western security frameworks are entirely absent.
Medium structural omission detected in mainstream coverage.
The narrative is produced by Western-aligned media and political elites, serving the interests of EU and Gulf state leaderships by framing security as a transactional resource rather than a shared systemic challenge. It obscures the complicity of European corporations in arms sales and fossil fuel extraction, which perpetuate cycles of conflict and displacement. The framing also privileges state-centric security paradigms over grassroots and civil society perspectives, reinforcing top-down power structures.
Migrant laborers in the Gulf, predominantly from South and Southeast Asia, face systemic exploitation under the *kafala* system, yet their voices are absent from security narratives. Gulf civil society groups, such as the *Bahrain Center for Human Rights*, document state repression and environmental degradation but are excluded from EU-Gulf dialogues. Indigenous and Afro-Arab communities in the Gulf, such as the *Zaraniq* in Yemen, are also sidelined despite their historical role in shaping regional resilience.
The EU-Gulf security alliance is a symptom of deep-seated colonial continuities, where energy and arms deals perpetuate cycles of extraction, militarization, and displacement.