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Introduction
This paper examines the foreign policy production of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) through the 'Dynamic Process Model' (DPM), a conceptual framework combining elements of international relations (IR) theory and foreign policy analysis. With a focus on the process of identity construction, the motives and values that drive foreign policy production can be better contextualized. Using the DPM to analyze the process of identity construction and foreign policy production in the UAE, this paper argues that a discernible shift in UAE foreign policy can be witnessed between the Sheikh Zayed era (1971- 2004) and the post-Zayed era.
Existing IR theories are simple and straightforward models that help us better view the shape of global politics and the complex interactions within, but these theories have in some cases become rigid and deterministic. The focus of mainstream IR theories on great power, economic interest and security have distorted realities and produced unhelpful conceptions, especially with regards to the global south. This paper utilizes many of these existing theoretical models in a novel form to create a framework that is more useful to studying the IR and foreign policy production of small states. This framework is presented as the DPM and will be used to analyze the identity construction of the UAE, a process central to understanding foreign policy production.
There were three reasons to choose the UAE as a case-study: firstly, the desire to study a possible shift in the underlying dynamics behind the country's 'identity' construction as a nation-state following the death of its founding father and first president, Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al-Nahyan. Secondly, the UAE is an interesting example of a re-examination of changing international relations dynamics; specifically, the growing selfawareness and assertiveness of small states, especially Arabian Gulf States (AGS), regarding their growing political and economic influence, both regionally and globally.1 Thirdly, there is a weakness when it comes to the integration between IR theory and foreign policy analysis. This gap is most apparent in the study of small state foreign policy like the UAE.2
The DPM originated from an interaction between the foreign policy analysis (FPA) literature and IR theory regarding smallstate foreign policy, specifically the need to better incorporate the process of 'identity construction.' The UAE is a pertinent...