A Twirling Path Towards ‘Nonalignment’ in Oman’s International Role

Oman accessed the UN on 7 October 1971, few days after its entrance in the League of Arab States. With this milestone, the Omani government managed to put an official end to the ‘Question of Oman’. Once a full member of the international community, Oman chose to identify with different groups within the UN system. It joined the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) in 1973 and became especially vocal in defending the principle of non-interference. In line with the NAM, it also presented itself as an anticolonial state. At the same time, however, Oman also employed strong anti-Communist tones and pro-Western alignments on other issues, despite the general calls for equidistance and even ‘military neutrality’. This chapter looks in detail at the evolution of the Omani discursive alignments on a variety of international issues, and at how supranational identifications and discursive strategies supported them.