Page 28 - UAE Truncal States

Introduction

categories and presents a good object for related case studies. It may
be called a “developing" country; it is a “Third World” country, an
"Arab" country, an oil-producing country; and it is a Muslim State.
The characteristics of each category are features of the UAE, but
there are no more similarities between the UAE and other countries
in these categories than there are vital differences, making the UAE a
special case within most of these categories. While it shares many of
the problems which developing countries face, the most ubiquitous
of them all, poverty, is no longer a problem for the UAE. Most other
Third-World countries have vestiges of some form of colonial
administration; the UAE was strongly but only indirectly influenced
by the British interests in the region.
This study is meant to serve the dual purpose of helping the
interested outsider to understand the historical perspective of the
UAE's present social and institutional complexity and also of
offering the preoccupied local administrator in the Emirates a
systematic interpretation of events leading up to the present
situation.
Last but not least, this study will probably provoke controversy !j
'll
leading to further specialised social studies for the benefit of all who
care for the well-being of the people in the UAE.
!

!
I;.

I

i
3