The UAE after the Arab Spring: Strategy for Survival

About the Book

Why did the Gulf monarchies – and the UAE in particular - avoid the upheavals and challenges of the Arab uprisings? This book examines how the UAE survived the waves of regional unrest. It departs from attributing regime survival to rentier state theory and instead offers a more nuanced approach to understanding the pillars of regime legitimacy upon which the UAE now rests. In doing so, the book sheds light on the transformation of the UAE from a quietist state, which relied almost entirely upon an overseas security guarantor, to an assertive regional power in its own right.

Written by an Emirati author who understands the internal dynamics of the country, the book examines the state's proactive foreign policy and the changing domestic and regional environment influencing its decisions. The book argues that the UAE leadership encouraged a new national identity to evolve amid the pressures of modernity, particularly at a time when young Emiratis had access to information beyond government control via social media. This is also part of its shift away from a country based on a rentier economy to a situation where the citizens take more initiative, learn more skills, and increasingly enter the private sector to help the country prosper. This has given rise to a new Emirati identity that is politically conservative, economically neo-liberal and socially liberal. In providing an analysis of the policies of the UAE leadership before and after the Arab Spring, this book is a vital contribution to the literature on Emirati domestic and foreign policy and points to where the country might be headed.

Table of Contents:

Introduction
Chapter 1: Political Islam in the UAE
Chapter 2: The state-led citizen-building process
Chapter 3: Foreign policy in a changing region
Chapter 4: Post-Arab spring security strategy
Conclusion

About the Author :

Khalifa Al Suwaidi is a researcher from the United Arab Emirates. He holds a PhD in government and international affairs from the University of Durham, UK. His research focuses on monarchical legitimacy and state survival strategies.

Review :
The author himself who as an Emirati scholar provides an inherently more intimate look at the argument of political legitimacy than most expats studying the UAE. Despite treading a fine line writing in a repressed public sphere about fairly contentious issues, Al-Suwaidi shows a degree of critical thinking and engagement that other more regime-aligned scholars often lack. Drawing on extensive primary sources, employing robust research methods, and engagingly written, this is a vital addition to the literature on the United Arab Emirates — now not only the Arab world’s second biggest economy, but arguably one of its most potent diplomatic and military actors. In this thought-provoking new study, Khalifa al-Suwaidi explores how and why the UAE has emerged from the Arab spring not just with enhanced regional power, but as an important global actor. Noting the importance of this activism in entrenching the existing dynastic order among its citizenry, the book is an antidote to those who argue that Rentierism alone remains the bedrock of order and stability across the Emirates. This book is a unique contribution to our understanding of the politics of the United Arab Emirates because Khalifa Al-Suwaidi provides a nuanced assessment of governance challenges over the last decade from a local perspective.