SMALL STATE SECURITY ENGAGEMENT IN POST-ARAB SPRING MENA: THE CASE OF THE UNITED ARAB EMIRATES

Abstract

This article analyses the UAE's security-led foreign policy engagement within the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). I have interpreted the UAE's foreign policy strategy as one that employs Joel Migdal's State in Society model, whereby informal networks and communities are primarily utilised for the implementation of foreign policy engagement. In this paper I discuss the justification for this hypothesis, and then illustrate my argument through case studies of the UAE's engagement with Libya, Yemen, and Somalia.