United Arab Emirates

The United Arab Emirates has emerged in a few decades to sell itself as an enlightened, modern, liberal beacon in the midst of a dark and chaotic Arab world. As the first country in the region to implement a "Vision" (Abu Dhabi Vision 2030), the UAE quickly became a resounding success beyond its borders. This is the bright side.The dark side: the UAE contributes to the stifling of democracies in Muslim countries. When they are not waging war, as in Yemen, they interfere, as no Arab power has done before, in the affairs of other countries, namely, Algeria, Egypt, Syria, Sudan, Tunisia.Abu Dhabi does not care about the Arab revolutions—for ten years, the country has engaged in a powder keg policy, which heralds new dangers for the region's equilibrium.Sébastien Boussois is a researcher in political science and is associated with ULB (Brussels) and UQAM (Quebec).