A central element of Hertie professor Daniela Stockmann’s “Development, Political Transition and Stability” is the development of a country portfolio, with the goal of making the students experts on specific countries. For this blog, I chose to focus on the United Arab Emirates as a case study of a non-democratic state that has recently experienced tremendous economic growth. At the time of this writing, I believe that this development was accompanied by a slow development towards greater freedom and closer ties to the western world.
I first developed an interest in the UAE when I had the honor of meeting Sultan Sooud Al-Qassemi—member of the Sharjah ruling family, political commentator and founder of the Barjeel Art Foundation—whose primary goal is to promote art by Arab artists through international exhibitions. Sultan was a World Fellow in the Yale Greenberg World Fellows Program, which brought together students like myself and practitioners from various backgrounds to foster an exchange of thoughts and ideas. Since then, Sultan and I have become good friends and still exchange our views on politics in the Middle East.
Moreover, the UAE decided to normalize its relations with Israel, which should be perceived as a milestone in its history of developing close ties with countries that do not share similar ideologies. For someone who grew up in Israel, this groundbreaking development prompted me to learn more about this country. Thus, my goal is to better understand the history and politics of the UAE. This country drastically transformed from an economy dependent on fishing to an oil-rich country that today attracts investors and businesses from around the world. Further, I find this country particularly interesting due to its unique population demographics: 88% of UAE residents are expatriate workers.
As mentioned before, I did not know much about the UAE before meeting Sultan. Due to the fact that Israel and the UAE did not have any relations, this country always seemed like a distant place that was out of reach to me, both politically and physically. Thus, aside from acknowledging UAE investments in projects and organizations abroad, like sporting events and clubs, the only perception I had of the UAE was of a very wealthy, non-democratic country that aims to strengthen its economic ties with the West. More recently, as my interest in political issues in the broader Middle East region has developed, so has my fascination with the various regional conflicts. For example, as an article in Der Spiegel suggests, the US is working to expand its front against the Iranian regime, which explains the strategy behind the agreements that were signed between Israel, the UAE and Bahrain this month.
Through this deep dive, I am looking forward to learning about general topics relating to development and political transition through the lens of the Emirates. By the end of this project, I hope to be able to understand the relationship between the domestic and international politics of this unique country.
Manhattan of the Middle East 