For the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the year of tolerance has just begun: domestic cohesion is critical for a country in which expatriates make up to 90% of the population. However, in the Emirates’ cultural rush, geopolitics matters a lot.
In the Arab Gulf states, the military has turned the page: a new, national-oriented pattern of civil-military relations is in the making, triggered by foreign projection and, in some cases, mandatory military service.
“Fighting al-Qaida before the Huthis”: the United Arab Emirates (Uae) have recently rebalanced their military commitment in Yemen, prioritizing counterterrorism operations against jihadi groups, in particular with regard to al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (Aqap). Since March 2015, the Saudi-led military intervention in Yemen against Zaydi Shia militias (the Huthis of Ansarullah, plus former president Ali Abdullah Saleh’s loyalists) has been marking a watershed for Gulf monarchies’ military projection outside their boundaries.
