The Making Of Uae Foreign Policy

This paper examines the foreign policy production of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) through the ‘Dynamic Process Model’ (DPM), a conceptual framework combining elements of international relations (IR) theory and foreign policy analysis. With a focus on the process of identity construction, the motives and values that drive foreign policy production can be better contextualized. This paper utilizes many of these existing theoretical models in a novel form to create a framework that is more useful to studying the IR and foreign policy production of small states. This framework is presented as the DPM and will be used to analyze the identity construction of the UAE, a process central to understanding foreign policy production. There were three reasons to choose the UAE as a case-study: firstly, the desire to study a possible shift in the underlying dynamics behind the country’s ‘identity’ construction as a nation-state following the death of its founding father and first president, Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al-Nahyan. Secondly, the UAE is an interesting example of a re-examination of changing international relations dynamics; specifically, the growing self-awareness and assertiveness of small states, especially Arabian Gulf States (AGS), regarding their growing political and economic influence, both regionally and globally. Thirdly, there is a weakness when it comes to the integration between IR theory and foreign policy analysis. This gap is most apparent in the study of small state foreign policy like the UAE. This paper uses the DPM to inform a structural analysis of UAE foreign policy (FP) production that will reveal a shift in ‘identity’ construction and domestic socio-political structures from the Zayed (1971–2004) to the post-Zayed era. It asks how the ‘identity’ of the DMA is constructed dynamically as it interacts with external and internal structures, through the process of articulating ‘national identity’ as ‘national interest.’ As Richard Devetak notes, “it is important to recognize that political identities do not exist prior to the differentiation of self and other.” The DPM sees FP production as a form of identity construction by combining this functional understanding of sovereign nation-states, systems theory FP5 literature, and IR theory.

Foreign Policy has been crucial to the UAE, ever since its birth in 1971 following Britain's decision to withdraw from the Gulf. How is the federation's foreign policy formulated? What are the internal and external pressures which shape it? How can a small Gulf state survive in the modern world? Dr Hassan Hamdan al-Alkim, himself a UAE national, has not only studied the Emirates' policy-making process in depth. He has also interviewed some of those closely involved in it. His detailed and fully documented study outlines the origins of the UAE and describes the evolution of its policies towards its neighbours, the wider Arab world, and the big powers. Three illuminating case-studies examine relations with Saudi Arabia and Iran, and the UAE's attitude towards the Palestine question.

Led by Dubai and Abu Dhabi, the UAE has become deeply embedded in the contemporary system of international power, politics, and policy-making. Only an independent state since 1971, the seven emirates that constitute the UAE represent not only the most successful Arab federal experiment but also the most durable. However, the 2008 financial crisis and its aftermath underscored the continuing imbalance between Abu Dhabi and Dubai and the five northern emirates. Meanwhile, the post-2011 security crackdown revealed the acute sensitivity of officials in Abu Dhabi to social inequalities and economic disparities across the federation. The United Arab Emirates: Power, Politics, and Policymaking charts the various processes of state formation and political and economic development that have enabled the UAE to emerge as a significant regional power and major player in the post Arab Spring reordering of Middle East and North African Politics, as well as the closest partner of the US in military and security affairs in the region. It also explores the seamier underside of that growth in terms of the condition of migrant workers, recent interventions in Libya and Yemen, and, latterly, one of the highest rates of political prisoners per capita in the world. The book concludes with a discussion of the likely policy challenges that the UAE will face in coming years, especially as it moves towards its fiftieth anniversary in 2021. Providing a comprehensive and accessible assessment of the UAE, this book will be a vital resource for students and scholars of International Relations and Middle East Studies, as well as non-specialists with an interest in the United Arab Emirates and its global position.

This book offers a concise and detailed analysis of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) foreign aid as a main instrument in its foreign policy. Exploring the cultural factors that have impacted on the foreign policy behaviour of the UAE and its foreign aid, the author argues that Arabism and Islamic traditions have shaped the country’s foreign policy in general and foreign aid in particular. Examining in depth the motives and purposes of this large aid program through the lens of International Relations theories (mainly Constructivism and Rationalism), the book details the UAE’s foreign policy and aid program since its inception. Drawing on a comprehensive analysis of two major recipients of aid from the UAE – Palestine and Pakistan – the focus moves beyond the UAE to show how cultural factors have impacted on the behaviour of the authorities across the wider Arab Middle East. This critical assessment and analysis of the UAE’s foreign policy will be of particular interest to students, researchers and academics interested in Middle East studies, the Gulf States, Middle East politics, and foreign aid and foreign policy.

For over a decade now, thinking on regional relations in the Gulf has focused on the competition for regional hegemony between Iran and Saudi Arabia. Today, this perspective is outdated. The smaller Gulf Arab states, led by the United Arab Emirates, are calling for their own goals and interests to be considered and a new regional order has emerged. This book asesses the UAE's increasing power and the future challenges to security it poses. It is a contemporary history and analysis of the changing role of the UAE. Dina Esfandiary argues that the UAE has become more assertive in the pursuit of its own interests in the region and beyond - even when this puts it at odds with its regional allies. This behavior includes the build-up of its military and non-military capabilities, the diversification of its partners, and its willingness to use these resources. The book examines the regional causes of the UAE's growing assertiveness - especially the 2011 Arab Uprisings – as well as the international context such as the impact of the US-announced 'Pivot to Asia', the perceptions of waning US power in the Middle East, and the 2015 nuclear deal. The UAE's changing role in the region will profoundly affect regional security. This book points towards how smaller states in the region will interact with regional hegemons in the long term, as they learn from the UAE's assertiveness and seek to imitate it.

The UAE¿s relatively open borders, economy, and society have won praise from advocates of expanded freedoms in the Middle East while producing financial excesses, social ills such as prostitution and human trafficking, and relatively lax controls on sensitive technologies acquired from the West. Contents of this report: (1) Governance, Human Rights, and Reform: Status of Political Reform; Human Rights-Related Issues; (2) Cooperation Against Terrorism and Proliferation; (3) Foreign Policy and Defense Cooperation With the U.S.: Regional Issues; Security Cooperation with the U.S.: Relations With Iran; Cooperation on Iraq; Cooperation on Afghanistan and Pakistan; U.S. and Other Arms Sales; UAE Provision of Foreign Aid; (4) Economic Issues.

A timely examination of how Saudi Arabia and the UAE punch above their weight in international affairs.