A clause that commits South Korean troops to come to the UAE’s defense in the event of a crisis offers insight into the security concerns of Arab — and particularly Gulf — leaders. It is not clear whether the clause defines a crisis exclusively as a military attack by an external force, or would also include domestic unrest.

The agreement, which shields the UAE government from having to seek parliamentary approval for action and was long kept from public view, was concluded at a time that the UAE was negotiating a deal with Erik Prince, the founder of the now-defunct, controversial private security firm Blackwater.

The $529 million contract with Prince was to create a mercenary force populated by Africans and Latin Americans that would “conduct special operations missions inside and outside the country, defend oil pipelines and skyscrapers from terrorist attacks and put down internal revolts.” The force was disbanded after The New York Times disclosed its existence in 2011, the year that much of the Middle East was swept by popular revolts.

… Dr James M. Dorsey, a non-resident Senior Associate at the BESA Center, is a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University and co-director of the University of Würzburg’s Institute for Fan Culture.

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