GRC was founded in July 2000 by Dr. Abdulaziz Sager, a Saudi businessman. Dr. Sagers vision was to fill an important void and to conduct scholarly, high quality research on all aspects of the wider strategic Gulf region including the GCC countries as well as Iran, Iraq, and Yemen. GRC operates on an independent, non-profit basis.
Its belief is that everyone has the right to access knowledge, so it has made all its research available to the general public through publications, workshops, seminars, and conferences. As a non-profit organization, GRC injects all income back into new programs and activities.