The advent of winter marks the start of the exhibitions and summits season in the Gulf, with officials, businesspeople and tourists from all over the world converging upon the region to connect, discuss, exchange and prosper.
The Gulf’s overall success today echoes that of Venice during the Middle Ages. And so, by examining the Italian city-state’s experience more closely, important lessons can be learnt about how to use commercial and diplomatic hyper-connectivity as leverage in the pursuit of world-leading innovation.
Venice during the 13th to 16th centuries lay at the intersection of the era’s major civilisations: Western and Central European powers through Alpine passes, the Mediterranean and Levant through secure maritime lanes and Byzantine (and later Ottoman) territories along the Eastern Mediterranean trade corridors. This gave the amphibious port what Gulf states have today: strategic centrality without being a great territorial empire.
As a result, Venice became the medieval and early modern world’s most sophisticated trans-shipment and logistics hub: grain and textiles from Europe moved towards the Levant; spices, silks, precious metals and pigments moved from the East to Europe, all on the Italian city’s giant galleys. Much of this will sound familiar to residents of 21st-century metropolises such as Dubai and Jeddah, where fleets of futuristic jets complement the enormous cargo ships that represent modern analogues to those medieval Venetian galleys.
Naturally, where commodities and services went, people followed, allowing Venice to become one of the earliest multilateral diplomatic clearinghouses in the world. It hosted dozens of foreign envoys, consuls and merchant representatives, mirroring the permanent resident ambassadors that the republic had in major African, Asian and European capitals. This enabled the Venetian senate to function as a diplomatic nerve centre, receiving foreign delegations almost daily.
In a similar vein, the Gulf region has also established itself as a meeting place for the world’s decision-makers. Whether it is recurring events, such as the Manama Dialogue in Bahrain or the Doha Forum in Qatar; or through global summits such as Cop28 in the UAE or the 2020 G20 summit in Saudi Arabia; this region has affirmed its status as an attractive destination for those looking to strike important deals.
Going forward, the challenge for Gulf countries is using their hyperconnectivity as a platform for boosting innovation. Venice was the progenitor of many modern business practices that have become central to global prosperity, most notably double-entry bookkeeping and limited liability incorporation. Much of this innovation was spawned by the republic’s status as a competitive melting pot for new ideas, supported by a government that realised that its agility was its greatest asset.
This was partially due to the long-sightedness of Venice’s ruling class, who were able to appreciate the economic opportunities that sound governance engendered. Yet it also reflected the city-state’s understanding of the existential threat posed to it by the large, neighbouring empires: the only way for it to survive and maintain its sovereignty was to ensure its indispensability to global commerce; an attribute that necessitated dynamism and innovation throughout Venetian society.
Many of these unique circumstances are shared by the Gulf Co-operation Council in the 21st century, with some important caveats.
The most salient is the abundant resource wealth possessed by the six member states – a luxury that Venice never enjoyed. Moreover, Gulf countries put their diplomatic acumen to good use in the pursuit of robust security guarantees from the US. While they have not perfectly neutralised all potential threats, it is fair to say they have largely avoided the perpetual conquest risk that Venice faced.
These two factors combined have allowed Gulf countries to focus on elevating their living standards through the process of investing in their natural resources. Cutting-edge research and development has largely been a peripheral rather than central component of their development strategies. This is changing.
With circumstances changing constantly, and as the future outlook for oil prices dims and instability continues to rise in some parts of the Middle East, Gulf states have understood that the incentives to innovate are growing ever more acute. They know that the time is right to use their cumulative investments in connectivity to their advantage, especially at a time when many of the world’s previous hubs have developed anti-immigrant sentiment. Some countries in the region are already proactive on this count.
To secure long-term prosperity, the Gulf region can do no better than to convert its hard-won centrality into a durable advantage grounded in creativity, experimentation and adaptive governance – the very formula that powered Venice at its peak.
