September 2nd, 2009 by Zack

Former AP Persian Gulf correspondent Jim Krane has published a new book about the rise of Dubai.  In a guest blog post at the Washington Note, he asserts that Dubai, not the U.S. administration, represents the Middle East’s best hope at peace.  For Krane, Dubai brings a unique resilience to the region and a pragmatic ability to succeed in spite of the region’s politics.

Krane holds Dubai’s model up as a “mixture of social freedom, unbridled immigration, and raw capitalism” led by pragmatism rather than ideology.  Relying on a social honor system, Dubai permits vices, such as alcohol, and trusts its citizens to a greater level than any of its neighbors.  He recognizes that the country is ruled by an autocratic regime and argues that this arrangement allows the country to avoid elections and the “Arab obsession with politics, especially the syndrome of feeling slighted by the West.”

Krane acknowledges that the economic crisis has weakened Dubai in the short-term, but argues that its fundamental pillars of growth remain sound and its model of self-help, already being adapted in some Arab states, may be the best hope of dragging the region into the economic mainstream.

Posted in Elections, Foreign Aid, Freedom, Gulf, Human Rights, Reform, UAE |