The Gulf states find themselves at the centre of a regional war that is not of their making. A confrontation that began with US and Israeli strikes on Iran has spread into a web of proxy conflicts, reaching from the Strait of Hormuz to the Red Sea and Bab Al Mandeb, through Iraq and Yemen. The members of the GCC now face a question they can no longer put off: will they turn their commitment to collective security from communiques into a working military deterrent?