Elegant people in volatile Gulf (8)
I believe the answer is:
graceful
'elegant' is the definition.
(I know that elegant can be written as graceful)
'people in volatile gulf' is the wordplay.
'people' becomes 'race' (people can mean a national group or race).
'in' is an insertion indicator.
'volatile' indicates an anagram.
'gulf' anagrammed gives 'gful'.
'race' put within 'gful' is 'GRACEFUL'.
(Other definitions for graceful that I've seen before include "Elegant, moving beautifully" , "Elegant in movement or manner" , "Elegant and moving easily" , "Moving easily and elegantly" , "Fluid" .)