Publication

This publication examines how and why the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has been expanding its role in the Horn of Africa. The text’s authors contend that the UAE’s motivations possibly lie in the strategic rivalries within the Gulf Cooperation Council concerning the region. This is important Gulf state competition has reshaped Horn geopolitics in both positive and negative ways in the past. For instance, both the UAE and Saudi Arabia helped along the recent Eritrea-Ethiopia rapprochement. However, Gulf powers can also sow instability, as the recent spillover of their competition with one another into Somalia has shown.