The Persian Gulf: International Politics & Historical Precedence

Geographers, historians, and map makersknow wherethe Persian Gulf is located.They know this because the name has been in use for 2,500 years. Nevertheless, during the past several decades, the Arab neighbors of the Persian Gulf have attempted through political means to change the name. For example, some have suggested to remove the word “Persian” and just call the Persian Gulf simply “the gulf.”By that logic one would be encouraged to rename the Atlantic Ocean to “The Ocean”. It is to be noted that as the world’s demand for oil increases, so does the necessity of sustaining the all-important security for the Persian Gulf and its geologically formed bottleneck, the Strait of Hormuz. The paper will devote enough space to demonstrate the wisdom of this rationale concluding with a discussion of howthis challenge to history has neither the support of history itself, nor the support of practical wisdom. The basic tenet of this paper is to argue that there is no basis for the proposed name change. To that end, the paper will consider both options of changing and not changing the name before detailing why keeping the name is a better choice. moreover the paper includes the ancient and modern maps of the Persian Gulf, references and a bibliography both for completeness and as a means for further study and research.