It took only five words to guarantee Wednesday, November 27, 2013, a place in the history of the United Arab Emirates.
“Ladies and gentlemen, Dubai wins,” said the official from the Bureau International des Expositions, the body responsible for overseeing, regulating and selecting the host city for the World Expo 2020.
As a supernova of purple fireworks exploded from the Burj Khalifa, Dubai became the first city in the Middle East, North Africa or South Asia to be chosen as host for one of the world’s oldest exercises in the kind of diplomacy the Harvard University professor Joseph Nye once described as “soft power”.
The opposite of the kind of coercive military force that Nye defined as “hard power”, soft power can be understood as the art of influencing foreign public opinion through a subtle and complex mixture of persuasion and prestige that can be frustratingly difficult and often expensive to acquire.
For Jay Wang, director of the University of Southern California’s Center on Public Diplomacy, Dubai’s Expo 2020 win was one of the 10 most notable examples of soft power to emerge from 2013.
“World Expos are the single largest promotional event of a nation outside their own borders. That’s a major platform for countries to reach out to the foreign public,” the academic and author told Vision magazine in Dubai last year.
For Wang, the success of an Expo as a marketing exercise is not guaranteed, but if the host city manages to engage with its visitors in the right way, he says, “[countries] can develop a strong impression on them that lasts for years to come”.
Abu Dhabi’s first experience of international expositions occurred 43 years earlier when the emirate built its very first national pavilion at Japan’s World Expo Osaka 1970.
At that time, the reasons for hosting an Expo were understood not in the contemporary terms of “soft power” or what Wang describes as “nation branding”, but as an exercise in national projection and cultural understanding.
On the face of it, Abu Dhabi did not have a national identity to promote at Osaka in 1970: the emirate was still a member of the Trucial States.
As Rashid Abdullah Al Nuaimi told The National in 2014, simply funding and organising the emirate’s participation was a challenge.
“In 1967 we had very limited resources and this was an international exhibition with major countries taking part who had a lot to show and participate with,” said Al Nuaimi, who was then serving as the director of Abu Dhabi’s Directorate of Oil.
“We barely had rudimentary primary schools. Also, we had no money. So with help from some Japanese and British companies, we collected enough money to create something to present,” says the first Emirati petroleum engineer, who eventually served as the UAE’s Minister of State for Foreign Affairs and then Foreign Minister.
Quite apart from the legal and financial challenges, what would the emirate decide to show? “We kept thinking of something that is an example of our culture and development,” Al Nuaimi says, “but again we only had forts.”
Designed by Abu Dhabi’s Egyptian town planner, Abdul Rahman Makhlouf, at a cost of 60,000 Bahraini dinars, the resulting pavilion was a vague replica of traditional buildings such as Abu Dhabi’s Qasr Al Hosn and the fortress at Al Jahili in Al Ain.
More telling, perhaps, than the pavilion itself, was the sheer determination of Sheikh Zayed to make Abu Dhabi visible on the international stage. Forty-five years later, thanks to a conscious strategy of funding, sponsorship and investment, the UAE has delivered on its Founding Father’s aim.
Visitors to the UAE’s pavilion at Shanghai Expo 2010, and at Expo Milano earlier this year, were presented with an image of the UAE that was much more self-confident – a portrait of a nation that has found a way to fuse its traditions with modernity and that has, in doing so, travelled from poverty to prosperity.
Designed by Foster + Partners, the architects responsible for the new World Trade Center and Masdar City in Abu Dhabi, the buildings drew their inspiration from the dunes, wadis, oases and mountains that define the UAE’s landscape but without the imported camels, palm trees and desert sand that were present at the Seville Expo 1992 and the Hanover Expo in 2000.
Thanks to major investments in soft power, such as Abu Dhabi’s development of Masdar City and its hosting of both the headquarters of the International Renewable Energy Agency and the World Future Energy Summit, the UAE has also been able to reposition itself, in the words of the Zayed University academic Li-Chen Sim, as an oil giant that is serious about becoming a titan of renewable energy. The country can show successful foreign investments and displays of expertise that reach from the Atlas Mountains of Morocco to the UK’s Thames Estuary.
Such investments in the field of sustainability have been mirrored by Dubai’s efforts to establish itself as a global tourist destination with well-developed hotel and leisure infrastructure and Abu Dhabi’s investment in culture and museums, strategies that have resulted in the patronage of headline-grabbing mega-projects such as the Palm Jumeirah, Dubai Mall, Burj Khalifa and Louvre Abu Dhabi.
For the Sharjah-based commentator and art collector Sheikh Sultan Al Qassemi, the exercise of soft power by Gulf states during the last decade, not just in Expos but in terms of their commercial, intellectual and cultural infrastructure, has helped countries such as the UAE rise to an unprecedented position of importance.
“When the British decided to withdraw from the Gulf states in the 1960s they left behind fledgling nations, weak and exposed to regional states and the political ambitions of neighbours,” he wrote recently in an opinion piece for CNN.
“Today – due to their incredible soft power – it is these Gulf states that carry influence over the rest of the Arab world.”
Benefits of first-time home buyers' scheme
- Priority access to new homes from participating developers
- Discounts on sales price of off-plan units
- Flexible payment plans from developers
- Mortgages with better interest rates, faster approval times and reduced fees
- DLD registration fee can be paid through banks or credit cards at zero interest rates
ELIO
Starring: Yonas Kibreab, Zoe Saldana, Brad Garrett
Directors: Madeline Sharafian, Domee Shi, Adrian Molina
Rating: 4/5
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
F1 The Movie
Starring: Brad Pitt, Damson Idris, Kerry Condon, Javier Bardem
Director: Joseph Kosinski
Rating: 4/5
The Porpoise
By Mark Haddon
(Penguin Random House)
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
More on animal trafficking
Global Fungi Facts
• Scientists estimate there could be as many as 3 million fungal species globally
• Only about 160,000 have been officially described leaving around 90% undiscovered
• Fungi account for roughly 90% of Earth's unknown biodiversity
• Forest fungi help tackle climate change, absorbing up to 36% of global fossil fuel emissions annually and storing around 5 billion tonnes of carbon in the planet's topsoil
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The specs
AT4 Ultimate, as tested
Engine: 6.2-litre V8
Power: 420hp
Torque: 623Nm
Transmission: 10-speed automatic
Price: From Dh330,800 (Elevation: Dh236,400; AT4: Dh286,800; Denali: Dh345,800)
On sale: Now
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Tips to stay safe during hot weather
- Stay hydrated: Drink plenty of fluids, especially water. Avoid alcohol and caffeine, which can increase dehydration.
- Seek cool environments: Use air conditioning, fans, or visit community spaces with climate control.
- Limit outdoor activities: Avoid strenuous activity during peak heat. If outside, seek shade and wear a wide-brimmed hat.
- Dress appropriately: Wear lightweight, loose and light-coloured clothing to facilitate heat loss.
- Check on vulnerable people: Regularly check in on elderly neighbours, young children and those with health conditions.
- Home adaptations: Use blinds or curtains to block sunlight, avoid using ovens or stoves, and ventilate living spaces during cooler hours.
- Recognise heat illness: Learn the signs of heat exhaustion and heat stroke (dizziness, confusion, rapid pulse, nausea), and seek medical attention if symptoms occur.
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Key changes
Commission caps
For life insurance products with a savings component, Peter Hodgins of Clyde & Co said different caps apply to the saving and protection elements:
• For the saving component, a cap of 4.5 per cent of the annualised premium per year (which may not exceed 90 per cent of the annualised premium over the policy term).
• On the protection component, there is a cap of 10 per cent of the annualised premium per year (which may not exceed 160 per cent of the annualised premium over the policy term).
• Indemnity commission, the amount of commission that can be advanced to a product salesperson, can be 50 per cent of the annualised premium for the first year or 50 per cent of the total commissions on the policy calculated.
• The remaining commission after deduction of the indemnity commission is paid equally over the premium payment term.
• For pure protection products, which only offer a life insurance component, the maximum commission will be 10 per cent of the annualised premium multiplied by the length of the policy in years.
Disclosure
Customers must now be provided with a full illustration of the product they are buying to ensure they understand the potential returns on savings products as well as the effects of any charges. There is also a “free-look” period of 30 days, where insurers must provide a full refund if the buyer wishes to cancel the policy.
“The illustration should provide for at least two scenarios to illustrate the performance of the product,” said Mr Hodgins. “All illustrations are required to be signed by the customer.”
Another illustration must outline surrender charges to ensure they understand the costs of exiting a fixed-term product early.
Illustrations must also be kept updatedand insurers must provide information on the top five investment funds available annually, including at least five years' performance data.
“This may be segregated based on the risk appetite of the customer (in which case, the top five funds for each segment must be provided),” said Mr Hodgins.
Product providers must also disclose the ratio of protection benefit to savings benefits. If a protection benefit ratio is less than 10 per cent "the product must carry a warning stating that it has limited or no protection benefit" Mr Hodgins added.
Results
5.30pm: Maiden (TB) Dh82,500 (Turf) 1,400m; Winner: Mcmanaman, Sam Hitchcock (jockey), Doug Watson (trainer)
6.05pm: Handicap (TB) Dh87,500 (T) 1,400m; Winner: Bawaasil, Sam Hitchcott, Doug Watson
6.40pm: Handicap (TB) Dh105,000 (Dirt) 1,400m; Winner: Bochart, Fabrice Veron, Satish Seemar
7.15pm: Handicap (TB) Dh105,000 (T) 1,200m; Winner: Mutaraffa, Antonio Fresu, Musabah Al Muhairi
7.50pm: Longines Stakes – Conditions (TB) Dh120,00 (D) 1,900m; Winner: Rare Ninja, Royston Ffrench, Salem bin Ghadayer
8.25pm: Zabeel Trophy – Rated Conditions (TB) Dh120,000 (T) 1,600m; Winner: Alfareeq, Antonio Fresu, Musabah Al Muhairi
9pm: Handicap (TB) Dh105,000 (T) 2,410m; Winner: Good Tidings, Antonio Fresu, Musabah Al Muhairi
9.35pm: Handicap (TB) Dh92,500 (T) 2,000m; Winner: Zorion, Abdul Aziz Al Balushi, Helal Al Alawi
Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
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Jetour T1 specs
Engine: 2-litre turbocharged
Power: 254hp
Torque: 390Nm
Price: From Dh126,000
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