Abstract
Rather than an engine of growth, or a force for political stability, the security sector in the UAE is a stage for domestic insecurities and a foreign policy that is tentative and reactionary in nature. This chapter addresses how the UAE military has developed along with the larger project of state building since the 1970s. It then argues that the intensification of military build-ups in equipment, troops and foreign advisers in the last decade is a direct result of local level federal competition and centralization of authority, as well as a regional recalibration of leadership within the GCC, along with an increase of American salesmanship and hegemony in the Arab Gulf. In the context of the argument of this book, the majilis in the security sector is under a major reconfiguration. The centralization of power in the federal government over military equipment and military strategy has created a new network that is more international in scope than in other areas of Emirati statecraft. The new majilis consists of transactional relationships in the security sector, as well as relationships that reward access and loyalty to regional elites. The tactics and rules are similar, but the players are shifting away from a domestic inter-royal dynamic to one of global military networks.
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Notes
“Regional security complex” is a term used by international relations scholar Barry Buzan to characterize the mutuality of threat or fear felt among the members of a regional organization or group toward each other. See Barry Buzan (1991) People, State and Fear. Boulder: Lynne Reinner. F. Gregory Gause III, prominent scholar of Saudi Arabia and the Gulf, also uses this concept as a means to explore security outcomes in the region as a result of (weak) formal alliances and the problems of consolidation of a centralized state.
See F. G. Gause III (2010) The International Relations of the Persian Gulf. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press) p. 3.
Steven Levitsky and Maria Victoria Murillo (2013) “Building Institutions on Weak Foundations”, Journal of Democracy, Vol. 24, No. 2, April, pp. 93–107, p. 95.
The literature on institutional design and origin relies on work by Paul Pierson. See for example, Paul Pierson (2000) “The Limits of Design: Explaining Institutional Origins and Design”, Governance, 13, pp. 475–499. Later debates within institutionalist approaches (historical, sociological and rational choice models) have centered on how change occurs and how agency can be attributed. On the concept of “stickiness”,
see James Mahoney and Kathleen Thelen (2010) “A Theory of Gradual Institutional Change”, in Mahoney and Thelen (eds), Explaining Institutional Change: Ambiguity, Agency, and Power (New York: Cambridge University Press), pp. 1–37.
For a theoretical discussion of capturing agency and possibilities for change in institutions, see Stephen Bell (2011) “Do We Really Need a New ‘Constructivist Institutionalism’ to Explain Institutional Change?”, British Journal of Political Science, 41, pp. 883–906. Bell argues that constructivist institutional approaches may not be capturing more than historical institutionalism sets to explain. There is still room for theoretical exploration in the role of ideas in institutions and, specifically, informal institutions as mechanisms for policy choice and execution.
The literature here is vast on the military role in institutionalization processes, mostly from the Latin American case perspective. See for example, J. Samuel Valenzuela (1992) “Democratic Consolidation in Post-Transitional Settings: Notion, Process, and Facilitating Conditions”, in Scott Mainwaring, Guillermo O’Donnell and J. Samuel Valenzuela (eds), Issues in Democratic Consolidation: The New South American Democracies in Comparative Perspective (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press), pp. 57–104;
also Frances Hagopian (1990) “‘Democracy by Undemocratic Means’? Elites, Political Pacts, and Regime Transition in Brazil”, Comparative Political Studies, Vol. 23, July, pp. 147–170.
I borrow the term “rentier populism” from Sebastián L. Mazzuca, though I adapt it beyond his intended purpose of describing the populist super-presidential political systems of Ecuador and Venezuela under Correa and Chavez, respectively. The concept, as Mazzuca employs it, is that resource rich electoral illiberal democracies can use proceeds from national resource extraction to buy political support from the masses. See Sebastián L. Mazzuca (2013) “The Rise of Rentier Populism”, Journal of Democracy, Vol. 24, No. 2, April, pp. 108–122.
I base this understanding of the role of ideas and informal institutions (norms, practices, codes of behavior) on the work of Peter Hall and others in the historical institutionalist tradition. For the policy paradigm construct that Hall uses, see Peter A. Hall (1993) “Policy Paradigms, Social Learning, and the State”, Comparative Politics, Vol. 25, pp. April, 275–96. For a review essay of how political scientists have theorized institutional change with an appreciation for the causal role of ideas (and informal institutions),
see Mark Blyth (1997) “‘Any More Bright Ideas?’ The Ideational Turn of Comparative Political Economy”, Comparative Politics, Vol. 29, No. 2, January, pp. 229–250.
The authority on the Trucial States of the Arabian peninsula in the 1960s, and the process of unification efforts, is Frauke Heard-Bey, a German historian who worked in Abu Dhabi before independence and for over thirty years after. See Frauke Heard-Bey (2004) From Trucial States to United Arab Emirates. (Dubai: Motivate Publishing), pp. 336–370.
Andrea Rugh (2007) The Political Culture of Leadership in the United Arab Emirates. (New York: Palgrave Macmillan), p. 10.
Martin Peck (2001) “Formation and Evolution of the Federation and its Institutions”, in Ibrahim al Abed and Peter Hellyer (eds), United Arab Emirates: A New Perspective. (London: Trident Press), pp. 145–160.
See Kourosh Ahmadi (2008) Islands and International Politics in the Persian Gulf: Abu Musa and the Tunbs in Strategic Perspective. (Oxon, UK: Routledge), p. 119.
See James Onley (2013) Britain and the Gulf, 1820s–1970s, London: Palgrave. Onley provides a history of the Trucial Oman Scouts and argues their importance as a foundational institution of the United Arab Emirates.
Peter Hellyer (2001) “Evolution of UAE Foreign Policy”, in Ibrahim Al Abed and Peter Hellyer (eds), UAE: A New Perspective. (London: Trident Press), p. 177.
Suaad Zayed Al-Oraimi (2008) “Defying the Prohibited Arena: Women in the UAE Military”, in Helena Carreiras and Gerhard Kummel (eds), Women in the Military and Armed Conflict. (Wiesbaden, Netherlands: VS Verlag), pp. 129–160.
Michael Herb (2009) “A Nation of Bureaucrats: Political Participation and Economic Diversification in Kuwait and the UAE”, International Journal of Middle East Studies, 41, pp. 375–395, p. 377.
Jordan Toone (2013) “Mirage in the Gulf?: Examining the Upsurge in FDI in the GCC and its Legal and Economic Implications for the MENA Region”, Emory International Law Review, Vol. 26. pp. 677–731.
See, for example, work by Ingo Forstenlechner and Emilie Rutledge which nicely provides data relating to oil revenue and per capita expenditure on nationals with employment in the private and public sectors among nationals and expatriates across the GCC: Forstenlechner, I. and Rutledge, E. (2010) “Unemployment in the Gulf : Time to Update the ‘Social Contract’”, Middle East Policy, Vol. 17, pp. 38–51.
For a discussion of national identity emerging as a strategy to assert sovereignty in the Arab Gulf states, see earlier work by Michael Barnett (1995) “Sovereignty, Nationalism, and Regional Order in the Arab 2 States System”, International Organization, Vol. 49, No. 3, June, pp. 479–510.
For a general discussion of Arab financial aid, including Kuwaiti sources and motivations, see Espen Villanger (2007) “Arab Foreign Aid: Disbursement Patterns, Aid Policies and Motives”, Forum for Development Studies, Vol. 34, No. 2, pp. 223–256.
Mohammad Ramadhan, Abdulhameed Hussain and Reem Al-Hajji (2013) “Limitations of Kuwait’s Economy: An Absorptive Capacity Perspective”, Modern Economy, May, Vol. 4, pp. 412–417. Ramadhan et al. argue that, “The economy depends heavily on oil exports, and specifically, oil revenues accounts for 50 percent of GDP, 95 percent of exports, and 90 percent of government income (GDP in 2010 was around 125 billion USD) … It should be emphasized that the economy generated high rates of savings, mostly through the public sector, while investing surprisingly little in the domestic economy. Most of Kuwait’s high savings are invested abroad, both in the form of FDI and as portfolio investment,” (Ramadhan et al. 2013, p. 412).
Mary Ann Tetreault, Andrezej Kapiszewski and Gwenn Okruhlik (2011) “Twenty-First-Century Politics in the Arab Gulf States”, in Tetreault, et al. (eds), Political Change in the Arab Gulf States: Stuck in Transition. Boulder: Lynne Rienner, p. 3.
See Mehan Kamrava, “The Arab Spring and the Saudi-Led Counterrevolution”, Orbis, Vol 56, No. 1, pp. 96–104. Kamrava gives some evidence of Saudi aid to Oman, and to the Omani strategies toward Iran over the last 30 years.
Also, see Marc J. O’Reilly (1998) “Omanibalancing: Oman Confronts an Uncertain Future”, Middle East Journal, Vol. 52, No. 1, Winter, pp. 70–84, for an earlier account of Omani foreign policy directed by the Sultan.
Two recent books on militarization of regional and US approaches to Yemen highlight the disregard in the international foreign policy community for the domestic politics of Yemen and the consequences of the militarization of borders and intervention based on concerns of exporting terrorism. On Yemen’s disintegration at the expense of local political organization, see Isa Blumi (2012) Chaos in Yemen: Societal Collapse and the New Authoritarianism. New York: Routledge;
also, on the question of the effects of international intervention and militarization of domestic conflict, see Akbar S. Ahmed (2013) Between the Thistle and the Drone: How America’s War on Terror Became a Global War on Tribal Islam. Washington, DC: Brookings Institute.
For a recent review of Qatari foreign policy, see Lina Qatib (2013) “Qatar’s Foreign Policy: The Limits of Pragmatism”, International Affairs, Vol. 89, No. 2, pp. 417–431. Qatib contends that Qatar did not send forces into Bahrain as part of the Peninsula Shield GCC effort. However, media outlets report Qatari military commanders as confirming their presence.
Muhammad al Rumaihi (1996) “The Gulf Monarchies: Testing Time”, The Middle East Quarterly, Vol. 3, No. 4, December, pp. 45–51.
For a more detailed analysis of the transition in Qatar in 1995–96 and the break with Saudi hegemony (partly over a border dispute between Qatar and Saudi Arabia), see Uzi Rabi (2009) “Qatar’s Relations with Israel: Challenging Arab and Gulf Norms”, The Middle East Journal, Vol. 63, No. 3, Summer, pp. 443–459.
Allen Fromherz (2012) Qatar: A Modern History. New York: IB Tauris, p. 108.
Peter Holtom, Mark Bromely, Pieter Wezeman and Sieman Wezeman (2013) Trends in International Arms Transfers, 2012. Stockholm International Peace Research Institute
For a recent edited volume addressing the contradictions of GCC and US/ European/NATO cooperation, see Riccardo Alcaro and Andrea Dessì(eds), (2013) The Uneasy Balance: Potential and Challenges of the West’s Relations with the Gulf States. Rome: Edizione Nuova Cultura.
Sarah Lischer (2007) “Military Intervention and the Humanitarian Force Multiplier”, Global Governance, Vol. 13, pp. 99–118.
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© 2014 Karen E. Young
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Young, K.E. (2014). An Emerging Interventionist: Political Economy of Security in the UAE. In: The Political Economy of Energy, Finance and Security in the United Arab Emirates. International Political Economy Series. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137021977_5
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