Electrical power generation in the Middle East may have become a bargaining chip in a different power contest—a contest over security cum political dominion. The region has pressing needs for developing new power-generation capacities to supply its growing economies, but when the GCC heads of state decided at the end of last year to pursue a research program into civilian use of nuclear energy, the political questions were inevitable. Does the GCC want to challenge Iran’s controversial nuclear program—that red flag for the US and most Western governments because of its military potential—by making sure it does not fall behind a threatening neighbor in nuclear technology? Or does the GCC plan have a primarily economic rationale? Over the past few weeks, supporters of building nuclear power plant(s) in the Middle East have argued that a plant could be completed in seven to 17 years’ time. The UAE—but also Jordan and