The United Arab Emirates (UAE): Issues for U.S. Policy
Abstract
The UAE s relatively open borders and economy have won praise from advocates of expanded freedoms in the Middle East while producing financial excesses, social ills such as human trafficking, and opportunity for UAE-based Iranian businesses to try to circumvent international sanctions. The social and economic freedoms have not translated into significant political change; the UAE government remains under the control of a small circle of leaders who allow citizen participation primarily through traditional methods of consensus-building. To date, these mechanisms, economic wealth, and reverence for established leaders have enabled the UAE to avoid wide-scale popular unrest. Since 2006, the government has increased formal popular participation in governance through a public selection process for half the membership of its consultative body, the Federal National Council (FNC). But, particularly since the Arab uprisings that began in 2011, there has been an increase in domestic criticism of the unchallenged power and privileges of the UAE ruling elite as well as the spending of large amounts of funds on elaborate projects that cater to tourists. The leadership has resisted any dramatic or rapid further opening of the political process and has suppressed Muslim Brotherhood-linked Islamists and secular opposition activists, drawing substantial criticism from human rights groups. On foreign policy issues, the UAE has become increasingly assertive in recent years to try to achieve regional stability, using primarily its ample financial resources. The UAE was the first Gulf state to order the most sophisticated missile defense system sold by the United States, demonstrating its support for U.S. efforts to assemble a regional missile defense network against Iran s missile force. The UAE also has implemented significant financial and economic sanctions against Iran, while seeking maintaining trade and commercial ties with and thereby avoiding antagonizing that large neighbor.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Oct 17, 2013
- Accession Number
- ADA588704
Entities
People
- Kenneth Katzman
Organizations
- Library of Congress