The downhill slide in the global price of crude oil in 2014 had major repercussions across the Middle East. Following the Arab uprisings of 2010 and 2011, the oil price decline represented a second major shock for the region in the early twenty-first century – one that provides constraints and opportunities. Offering the first comprehensive analysis of the Middle Eastern political economy in response to the 2014 oil price decline, this book connects oil market dynamics with an understanding of socio-political changes.

Inspired by rentierism, the contributors present original studies that reveal a large diversity of country-specific policy adjustment strategies: from the migrant workers in the Arab Gulf, who lost out in the post-2014 period, to Egypt, Jordan, and Lebanon, who have never been able to benefit from the 2014 oil price decline. With timely contributions on the COVID-19-induced oil price crash in 2020, this collection shows that rentierism still prevails.