The International Defense Exhibition,
otherwise known as IDEX, has been held bi-annually
in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) since 1993. It
is the largest defense expo in the Middle East and
North Africa and one of the biggest in the world.
But far from being a one-off, it highlights the
UAE's growing stature as a global arms buyer.
This year's IDEX took place in February in
the glistening Abu Dhabi National Exhibition
Centre. Its high ceilings and massive rooms
displayed a diverse array of high-tech weaponry
against the backdrop of heavily illuminated
signboards like the ones you see in the showrooms
of luxury car dealerships. All the big Western
defense corporations were there - Lockheed Martin,
Boeing, Dyncorp, Northrup Grumman, European
Aeronautic Defense and Space Co - as well as
Chinese companies, including China North. There
were also a host of local companies including Arabian
Aerospace, Abu Dhabi Ship
Building Company, and the state-owned Mubadala.
Like all of these events, it was a heavily male
enterprise. The exhibitors wore suits. The
visitors wore either the military uniform of the
UAE or traditional Arab dress.
Outside,
the expo began with a parade and air show, and
representatives from BAE Systems gave passers-by a
tour of the latest features of their all-terrain
tank. Just inside the entry hall, visitors could
check out a parked yellow Hummer on their way to
the exhibits. At the US pavilion, a representative
from Boeing demonstrated the features of its
integrated defense simulator, and General Dynamics
showed off its latest MK-47 machine gun. At the
Lockheed Martin exhibit, you could get within
inches of anti-aircraft missiles propped on
plastic risers like pieces of modernist art - so
shiny you could see your reflection in them.
This lavish exhibition occurred a full
three months before The New York Times broke the
story that former Blackwater/Xe founder Erik
Prince had struck a secret deal worth US$529
million with Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan,
Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, [the deputy supreme
commander of the UAE armed forces] to form a
mercenary army for the UAE. According to reports
cited in the story, the force will be used to
protect oil pipelines and skyscrapers against
terrorist attacks and suppress internal uprisings
of the large population of migrant workers living
in the country - as well as potentially engaging
Iran, long the UAE's biggest regional foe.
Coverage so far has centered on Prince and
his notorious company. But the full story of the
UAE's employment of foreign companies to build up
its military and defense goes well beyond
Blackwater/Xe and includes a virtual who's who of
Western defense companies.
A brief
history of the UAE military The UAE we know
today is a relatively new entity. For most of the
last two centuries, Britain provided security in
the region in exchange for lucrative trading deals
and control of the sheikhs' relations with other
foreign powers. Security was handed over to the
UAE in 1971, when the sheikhs of Abu Dhabi, Dubai,
and four other emirates agreed to form a federal
union.
Although the UAE's military, known
as the Union Defense Force (UDF), is
technologically advanced, it is relatively small
in numbers. In many armies, the vast underclass
typically fills the rank and file. But in the UAE,
this social group is made up almost entirely of
non-citizens - migrant workers who build the
roads, skyscrapers, and golf courses where the oil
titans and Branjelinas of the world like to play.
There are currently about 65,000 members serving
in the UDF. Though most of the officers are UAE
nationals, most of the foot soldiers are
mercenaries from other Arab states and Pakistan.
In recent years, the UAE has made massive
military and defense investments in an effort to
rebuff Iran, become a dominant military player in
the region, and diversify its oil-dependent
economy. Recruiting ever more foreign soldiers -
like the Colombian paramilitaries who will be part
of Prince's mercenary outfit - is a key part of
this endeavor. Purchasing ever-larger amounts of
the best high-tech weaponry is perhaps an even
more important part. In 2009, the UAE was the
biggest foreign purchaser of US arms. In October
2010, it invited 50 US-based defense companies to
visit and see the opportunities for growth
first-hand.
Who's profiting from the
UAE arms proliferation? The UAE's long-term
plan is to build its own defense industry into a
major international player. In accordance with
this plan, 75% of the contracts at IDEX went to
local firms, including Emirate Systems, which got
a $550 million deal to coordinate military
intelligence and communicate military operations
down the chain of command. Another major deal
involved the Abu Dhabi-based Bayanat Co, which
obtained a contract to provide aerial surveillance
within the UAE.
As with most aspects of
the UAE economy, Western businesses have an
integral and profitable role to play in this
endeavor. They work as "partners" with the local
companies. Typically, this means they provide the
expertise, training, and equipment, while the UAE
government provides the money. The state-owned
Mubadala Development Co, which has seen growing
profits in recent years, does business with all
the biggest Western contractors.
All
parties involved are careful about how they
publicly frame these partnerships. The UAE works
hard to brand such endeavors with the proper
Arabian stamp. To this end, an official video of
the UAE armed forces posted on YouTube shows
shirtless Arab sailors with turbans rowing apace
with a massive battleship, men in long white robes
and head scarves riding vigorously atop Arabian
horses alongside tanks in the desert, and
real-live falcons flying next to F-16 Fighting
Falcon planes. Okay, we get it. Modern killing
technology meets the elegant tradition of the
Arabian warrior. This is the best of both worlds,
a potent (pun intended) mixture of Western and
Arabian warrior traditions.
The Western
defense industries are equally careful to stem
potential accusations that they have sold out to
foreign Muslims who might one day turn their backs
on us and join the global jihad. In the United
States, industry reps couch their connections with
the UAE in the all-American lingo of good business
ethics. The spokesperson for the National Defense
Industries Association (NDIA), the industry's most
influential lobbying arm, explained that the UAE
firms "profess similar values as US industry. They
all emphasize integrity, service, commitment and
excellence".
They also share the value of
making money. A brief sampling of recent contracts
gives an idea of just how much money is at stake
in the growth of the UAE's military apparatus:
Back in 2008, Raytheon signed a deal to
deliver Patriot missiles to the UAE to the tune of
$3.3 billion. The first deliveries are scheduled
for later this year. After this year's IDEX,
company executives reported that they were close
to signing a contract for delivery of the more
sophisticated Theatre High Altitude Defense
(THAAD) system in partnership with Lockheed
Martin. That deal is also worth billions.
Boeing has a contract to deliver four C-17
aircraft to the UAE, and Lockheed Martin has an
agreement to make 12 C-130J planes. These two
contracts amount to $3 billion.
The second-largest contract at IDEX went to
France's Nexter System to provide technical
support for LeClerc tanks. For its services,
Nexter will receive the equivalent of $115
million.
The US-based Goodrich Corporation secured a
deal at IDEX for $81 million to provide F-16 parts
for the UAE Air Force.
There are also plans for a partnership between
a UAE-based company and the US-based General
Atomics Aeronautical Systems to sell the infamous
Predator drones to the UAE. This will be the first
time the technology will be sold to a foreign
buyer.
Who loses out? The rapid
expansion of the UAE military has the tacit
support, if not outright blessing, of the US
government. In response to the news that
Blackwater had struck a deal with the UAE, a
Barack Obama administration official was quoted as
saying, "The gulf countries, and the UAE in
particular, don't have a lot of military
experience. It would make sense if they looked
outside their borders for help... They might want
to show that they are not to be messed with." The
US Defense Department recently announced reforms
that will make it easier for domestic defense
companies to export their products to foreign
buyers.
There are at least two reasons for
the administration's position. First and foremost,
it regards the UAE as one of its most important
allies in the region. The emirates supported both
Iraq wars, and it currently is involved in
cracking down on the protest movement in Bahrain -
it sent 500 police officers to suppress the revolt
in the tiny Gulf kingdom. In the midst of the
crackdown, Crown Prince Mohamed bin Zayed was
welcomed by the White House with open arms.
Support for exporting US arms to the UAE
is also part of a larger move to accommodate the
defense industry, which has repeatedly voiced
concern about the threat of a shrinking defense
budget, although the supposed US$78 billion in
cuts represent little more than a cap on future
growth and a reshuffling of the current budget.
In this broader context of both the US
willingness to provide arms for Gulf allies and
the ongoing budget wars in the United States,
direct contracts between the defense industry and
the UAE appear to be a win-win situation for
everyone - everyone, that is, except the hundreds
of thousands of migrant workers and critics of the
UAE regime who will be among the targets of the
military's beefed-up surveillance systems and the
mercenary's guns.
It is telling that the
UAE government would rather hire mercenaries to
suppress potential rebellions than improve the
conditions of these workers, who are systemically
abused by their bosses and forced to live in
cramped slums with little or no access to basic
infrastructure and services.
In recent
months, the UAE has arrested and jailed at least
five democracy activists as well as disbanded the
board of directors for the National Jurists
Association and the Teacher's Association, two of
the country's most eminent civil society
organizations and supporters of democratic reform.
The UAE's enhanced military apparatus will likely
suppress any potential protest movement that might
develop as part of the Arab Spring.
The
enhanced ties between the United States and the
UAE raise important questions about who is
actually responsible for the actions of the
Emirati military. Currently, neither the US
government nor the defense industry has spoken out
against the government's crackdown. It would be
delusional not to acknowledge the US role in the
UAE's human rights abuses. If and when an atrocity
is committed against the migrant workers and
democracy activists by the UAE military, Erik
Prince and the UAE government won't be the only
ones to blame.
Foreign Policy In Focus
columnist Hannah Gurman is an assistant
professor at New York University’s Gallatin School
of Individualized Study. She writes on the
politics, economics, and culture of US diplomacy
and military conflict. Her forthcoming book,
The Dissent Papers: The Voice of Diplomats in the
Cold War and Beyond, will be published by the
University of Columbia Press in the autumn of
2011.
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