U.S. interest in what’s here called the Persian Gulf can be generally traced to the discovery of oil in the Middle East, a development that has rewritten geopolitics in the last century. Georgia State University Professor Allan Fromherz outlines his argument in “The Center of the World: A Global History of the Persian Gulf from the Stone Age to the Present,” published in September 2024. In the book, Dr. Fromherz offers historical profiles of six port cities who saw their fortunes ebb and flow with the monsoons and floods of the region over millennia. These Gulf states have a long and storied history of global commerce, and knowing how that works,” he said. Now, these regional players have something to teach the world about the overlap between local identity and global citizenship, he said.

Source: The North Africa Journal March 14, 2026 05:48 UTC