United Arab Emirates: A New Perspective

An authoritative and wide-ranging book uncovering the rich heritage of the United Arab Emirates, its political renaissance and its modern transformation into one of the most developed nations in the world. Thirty years after its establishment, the United Arab Emirates has become the longest surviving successful experiment in federation anywhere in the Arab world, and has matured to become a country which not only offers its population a modern lifestyle but also is widely recognized as having a significant role to play within the global community of nations. Parallel with the dramatic economic and social development that has taken place, there has been an explosion in academic research on the country, as scholars both within the UAE and abroad have studied a wide range of aspects of the state. This book brings together a collection of papers by some of those leading scholars and is designed to provide an overview of the UAE at the beginning of the 21st century. Contributors chart the emergence of the landscape of the country, the origins of the people and their tribal structures, the political formation and nature of the federation, the significant role of the UAE in regional and world affairs, the part played by oil and industrialization in the country's remarkable economic development, and the way in which conservation of wildlife and the environment has become a key priority of UAE government policy. Cultural development in terms of poetic expression is also explored.