Since the Arab Spring in 2011 the Gulf States, especially Qatar, Bahrain, the UAE and Saudi Arabia, have been prominent in the region's foreign policy and military activities in ways which were inconceivable even a decade ago. The participation of Gulf States within outside-in coalitions like the US-led campaign against Daesh and with the UK-France led intervention against Ghadaffi, were significant enough, but more important was the formation of an inside-out coalition of the willing to intervene in Yemen in 2015, followed by the Islamic Military Alliance to Fight Terrorism in December 2015. These Saudi-led initiatives are radical departures drawing in wider regional and extra-regional adherence. Rather than focusing on the pure-geopolitical explanations for this phenomenon however, this paper explores the drivers of the new Gulf-led process of 'coalitions of the willing' across different levels as expressions of multiple dimensions of attempts to shore up regime security. This new military adventurism meshes with the introduction of conscription in three Gulf States and a plethora of projects designed to re-enforce national identity. These are clearly aimed at boosting national sentiment in the aftermath of the Arab Spring, and coupled with increased securitisation of discourses across the GCC. While these new 'coalitions of identity' can, partly, be explained by the traditional notion of the diversionary theory of war, they also represent two further processes. The first is ideational. The traditional desire of the region's citizens to be part of something bigger, a Gulf-based identity is however limiting in terms of foreign policy, thus an additional identity structure based on Sunnism creates a wider connection useful in terms of joining localised identities to something bigger, offering tools to develop Gulf leadership over the wider Arab and Muslim worlds. Not coincidentally, these are forms of identity which re-enforce the leadership of the Gulf States cementing the influence of monarchical systems of rule. The second process is a more pragmatic reaction to a realisation that with the threats and opportunities now present, Gulf leadership is essential. It seems that, 'stepping up to the plate' can re-enforce regime security in Gulf States on a number of levels. The paper encapsulates these complex dynamics within the development of a new diversionary theory of regime stability, assessing the impacts and complexities of these processes in the short term, and examining the potential of these processes of change to transform the dynamics of regional politics over the longer term.