As the UAE moves into the Twenty First Century, it is playing a much more decisive role in regional and international affairs. But its new-found global confidence and willingness to be involved is based on decades of steady development which was focused on inward development as the country moved from the very low base line which it inherited at independence in 1971.
The high standard of physical infrastructure in the UAE tends to dominate first impressions, but far more important are the schools and colleges where the fast growing population of UAE nationals has been educated. The country had only 40 graduates in 1971, and did not have enough trained and educated citizens to manage its own affairs.
The ambitious plans of the leaders required a huge investment in education over the decades, and even if standards have sometimes fallen off and periodically needed to be updated and restored, the result today is a national workforce that is educated and aware of the global economy with which that every nation has to be a willing member.
Protectionism and narrow nationalism is no longer an option for any country, even if it is one of the world’s largest producers of oil. And the UAE’s government is clear that it has to think of the country’s substantial present wealth as only temporary. Its huge reserves of hydrocarbons will run out, but it has built a valuable window of a few decades in which the UAE can plan for a different future.
This economic diversification will both shift the economy away from oil, but just as importantly it will provide careers and employment for the growing number of UAE nationals, and this planning is happening at both federal and emirate level. For example, even the oil and gas giant of the emirate of Abu Dhabi has taken a decision invest in key manufacturing industries to raise the non-oil share of GDP to over 60 percent by 2030.
In order to achieve this, Abu Dhabi’s Department of Economic Development has identified industrial clusters which offer competitive advantages to the particular circumstances of the UAE’s economy, which include aerospace, renewable energies, semiconductors, steel, aluminum, engineered metal products, petrochemicals and plastics products. These investments will put Abu Dhabi and the UAE at the forefront of vital strategic industries that rely on the value add that the UAE can offer, and build an important place for the UAE in the future.
Confidence
With its economy on track to become more diversified, and the country’s colleges turning out thousands of graduates a year, the country is able to look at its foreign policy more confidently and has played a significant part in seeking a peaceful and more stable region.
The UAE has shown its willingness to help solve major crises, and it has contributed its armed forces to several international alliances. It was an important part of the international force in Kosovo in the 1990s. And more recently in 2011, it played a vital part in motivating first the Gulf Cooperation Council and then the Arab League to take action in Libya as the rebels against Gaddafi’s regime faced annihilation. The UAE’s initiative allowed the region to take a view on what to do, which then went to the United Nations and the NATO intervention followed which led to Gaddafi’s fall and the present government taking office.
A more long term commitment has been the UAE’s involvement in Afghanistan as one of 49 nations taking part in NATO’s International Security Assistance Force, ISAF. It was important that the international effort to build a new and more stable Afghanistan includes a Muslim and Arab country from the Gulf. And the UAE is well aware that in addition to the practical military support that its troops are offering ISAF, it also is providing important political proof that Gulf states support the suppression of the Taliban and Al Qaida, and want to see a more inclusive and open Muslim society in Afghanistan.
Core values
These commitments are based on the UAE’s core values of tolerance and openness. It is proud to be a Muslim and Arab state, and combined with its Gulf heritage means that the UAE has been open and tolerant of foreigners for centuries. People from different countries have been made welcome and settle in the UAE since time immemorial.
There is no doubt that the country has a long way to go on the road to more inclusive government, and the leadership has been very clear that that is the route that the country will take, but it will not be rushed into hasty action. The gradual process of reform and political progress will be dictated by the UAE’s own natural pace, rather than being forced on it from outside.
As the turmoil of the Arab Spring washed over the Arab world last year, an important indicator of broad popular acceptance of this gradualist approach to political reform was that the UAE remained broadly calm throughout the whole time.
The values at the core of the UAE’s spirit have often been articulated by the country’s leaders, and in the cabinet. Most recently, they were spelt out when the UAE was voted on to the UN Human Rights Council in November 2012, and Dr Anwar Mohammad Gargash, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, welcomed the UAE’s new position by saying: “This crowns a series of achievements by the UAE in its human rights record over the recent years, particularly in areas of legislations to uphold and protect fundamental freedoms and legal rights of individuals, rights of women and children and advanced regulations on rights of foreign workforce.”
He added that “The UAE’s winning of the seat [on the UN Human Rights Council] for the next three years will lay on us an additional onus and commitment to stay our course firmly in consistence with constitutional principles on which the UAE State is built and which place respect for human rights at the top of national priorities.”
He added that the achievement explicitly promotes the values and culture of the UAE which based on tolerance, openness, justice, equality and human dignity; and that this recognition further consolidates the UAE’s stature in the international scene.
Sustainability
But the UAE is looking beyond economic and political issues to the wider issues affecting the globe as a whole. As it develops its economy in the new strategic areas, and takes a more dominant role in regional foreign affairs seeking to support more open and transparent governance, the UAE will also maintain its commitment to sustainable development.
Abu Dhabi is now host to the headquarters of Irena, the International Renewable Energy Agency, and illustrates the UAE’s determination to promote renewable energy and sustainable use of the world’s resources. But the Abu Dhabi-owned Masdar, is an initiative that is also part of the UAE’s search for how to promote new technologies to foster new thinking and help develop sustainable economies across the world, which in turn will help the survival of the human race as it defeats the threat of global warming.
The placing of such a global task into the UAE national priorities, shows how far the UAE has come since December 1971, when only 40 graduates set out to help the leaders and people established their new state.
