The Role of Elites in Foreign Policy Making in the United Arab Emirates

Year 2025, Volume: 15 Issue: 1, 135 - 161, 30.06.2025

Mehmet Ali Mert

https://doi.org/10.31679/adamakademi.1384990

Abstract

New issues are emerging in the international system that directly affect the foreign policies of countries. This has brought about differentiation in decision-making processes in foreign policy. In the leader-oriented foreign policy-making process, which was more intense in previous periods, different actors, especially the elites, were involved. One of the most important factors affecting leaders' decisions is the guidance of elites. With the strengthening of the neo-classical realist approach in international relations, the main works written on political science today often address political issues with reference to elites. Due to these new trends emerging in the literature, it is important to investigate the relationship between elites and foreign policy. Based on the literature on political elites, this study discusses how elites are actually formed, how they behave within the political structure, and what kind of influence they have on the foreign policy decision-making processes of countries, in the case of the United Arab Emirates. The study will argue that the traditional elites of the UAE were decisive in shaping the political, economic and military policies in the newly built state by reducing the competition between them and establishing alliances with each other, and that they used foreign policy to expand their own interests by spending new sources of wealth such as oil revenues. It is among the claims put forward in this study that the fact that foreign policy is under the control of a limited elite group affects the country's drifts in foreign policy.

Keywords

Political elites , Elite formation , United Arab Emirates , Emirati foreign policy culture.

Birleşik Arap Emirlikleri’nde Dış Politika Yapımında Elitlerin Rolü

Abstract

Uluslararası sistemde ülkelerin dış politikalarını doğrudan etkileyen yeni konular ortaya çıkmaktadır. Bu da dış politikada karar alma süreçlerinde farklılaşmayı beraberinde getirmiştir. Önceki dönemlerde daha yoğun olan lider odaklı dış politika yapım sürecinde zorunlu başta elitler olmak üzere farklı aktörler de dahil olmuştur. Liderlerin kararlarını etkileyen en önemli unsurlardan birisi elitlerin yönlendirmesidir. Uluslararaı ilişkilerde neo-kalsik realist yaklaşımın güçlenmesiyle birlikte, günümüzde siyaset bilimine dair yazılan temel eserler siyasal meseleleri sıklıkla elitlere referansla ele almaktadır. Literatürde ortaya çıkan bu yeni eğilimler sebebiyle elitler ve dış politika ilişkisinin araştırılması önem arz etmektedir. Bu çalışma, siyasi elitler ile ilgili literatüre dayanarak elitlerin gerçekte nasıl oluştuklarını, siyasi yapı içerisinde nasıl davrandıklarını ve ülkelerin dış politika karar süreçlerinde ne tür bir etkide bulunduklarını Birleşik Arap Emirlikleri örneğinde ele almaktadır. Çalışma BAE’nin geleneksel elitlerinin aralarındaki rekabeti azaltmak ve birbirleri ile ittifak kurmak suretiyle yeni inşa edilen devlette siyasi, ekonomik ve askeri alandaki politikaların şekillenmesinde belirleyici olduklarını ve petrol gelirleri gibi yeni zenginlik kaynaklarını sarf etmek suretiyle dış politikayı kendi çıkarlarını genişletmek için kullandıklarını iddia edecektir. Dış politikanın sınırlı bir elit grubun denetiminde olmasının ülkenin dış politikada yaşadığı savrulmaları etkildeği de bu çalışmada ileri sürülen iddialar arasındadır.

Keywords

Siyasi elitler , Elit oluşumu , Birleşik Arap Emirlikleri , Emirlikler dış politika kültürü.

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