The theory of the rentier state significantly contributed to our understanding of contemporary politics of the Arabian Peninsula. Its reference to oil wealth, which completely reshaped the entire region, demonstrates new economic and socio-political aspects of the Arab monarchies. Nonetheless, it omits some crucial facets of domestic and regional politics, which clearly play a large role in explaining the stability of those states and the entire region. It is claimed here that this theory, though analytically helpful in explaining some factors attributing to the resilience of the state systems, does not provide final answers to the issue at question and may sometimes distort our perception, as it is sometimes used as a “catch-all phrase”. Rathmell and Schulze rightly state that “it should be evident that no single model can explain political developments in the GCC states”