Daily News (Egypt)
16 February 2015
- RSIS
- Media Mentions
- UAE Embarks on Global Campaign to Market its Brand of Autocracy
UAE Embarks on Global Campaign to Market its Brand of Autocracy
The United Arab Emirates has embarked on an all-out effort to broaden its regional influence and achieve global acceptance of its autocratic definition of terrorism that encompasses all non-violent, legitimate expressions of political Islam.
The effort competes head on with Qatar’s pro-Islamist approach to soft power. It involves participation in the US-led coalition fighting the Islamic State, an aggressive media strategy that included attempting to discredit Qatar’s hosting of the 2022 World Cup, the use of a network of allegedly UAE-funded NGOs, a religious council to counter to promote a quietist interpretation of Islam, and a failed effort to mediate an end to Yemen’s political crisis in part with the help of a former president of the Yemeni Football Association.
A controversial, reportedly UAE-backed NGO, the Global Network for Rights and Development(GNRD), in the latest building block of the Emirati campaign, is organisingan anti-terrorism conference in Geneva next weekto discuss a proposed International Convention on Balancing Counter-Terrorism and Human Rights.
…James M. Dorsey is a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies as Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, co-director of the Institute of Fan Culture of the University of Würzburg and the author of the blog, The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer, and a forthcoming book with the same title.
RSIS / Online
