The UAE is facing the next few decades of very turbulent times in the Gulf secure in the knowledge that it has done a good job of educating the next generation of nationals to be both proud Arabs and at the same time confident global citizens.
This is a priceless asset for the country: it offers the nation a terrific pool of dedicated and focused nationals who can contribute to the economy, and at the same time it has fostered a politically tolerant majority, who are not interested in following any path leading to extremism, or even radical violence. This economic and political force means that the UAE is able to pursue with confidence its path of economic development within the global world.
To have got this far has not been an accident, and it is in large part due to the Ministry of Higher Education laying down solid syllabuses for the higher institutions that took students into studies. This will place the UAE at the forefront of global thinking.
This was not an accident, and there are many other options with which the UAE might have ended up. For example, in the government's primary and secondary schools there has been far too much learning by rote, based on imported Arab syllabuses which were not at all best practice. The current reforms of the government schools are all about the UAE recognising this mistake and putting it right. Yet another option would have been to follow a more religious line, as was done by Saudi Arabia where the religious content of the school curriculum is so high that it has forced out many essential aspects of a syllabus that would allow its students to be more globally confident.
The UAE Government will face several substantial regional challenges in the next decade, along with everyone else in the Gulf: the continuing turmoil in Iran, as it seeks a way forward internally while at the same time seeking wider regional influence; the hoped for emergence of an Iraqi government solely in charge of its own country will need support from all its neighbours; the long-running outrage of Palestine; and the continuing crisis in Afghanistan with its imminent spill-over into Pakistan's lightly administered federal tribal areas.
All these issues add up to a continuing scene of endemic violence and unrest, and it will be a major challenge to keep the UAE as peaceful and tolerant as it has been for decades. But the groundwork has been done, and although it is often overlooked, it is a substantial success for the UAE that it has been so calm, and remains so. This requires continual work from the government and leadership, and in this task the government relies on the steady support of its people.
Rational discussion
The essentially liberal agenda encouraged by the government, in coordination with the governments of the other GCC states, is based on making the UAE an integral part of the global economy, and seeking non-violent solutions based on rational discussion in the region's disputes. It also seeks to allow the individuals within the society to use their full potential and strive for the maximum. This has the support of the large majority of the people, and while some other Gulf states have continuing self-conscious discussions about how they might be more conservative or more religious, the UAE remains firmly liberal.
The UAE governments set the pace on this effort, and while there are a few individual liberal intellectuals who offer independent commentary on what is going on, the majority of people who back the liberal agenda are in government service. They want to see tolerance and transparency becoming the hallmark of future UAE society, while at the same time remaining true to the Arab and Islamic roots of the country.
However, one of the effects of having so many supporters of the policies in government service is that there is little independent discussion outside government, so it can be hard to find independent confirmation that the country is on the right track. There may be religious or conservative thinkers who query aspects of the country's direction, in natural social debate, but they do not find much non-government liberal thought to come back at them.
However, this is not because the direction is unpopular. The UAE's population has a very wide consensus that the basic strategy of the country is right.
While there are some obvious and natural doubts about the speed of development, very few have any doubts about the principle.
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