What makes the UAE different? What might it look like in 20 years?
What makes the UAE different? What might it look like in 20 years? what kind of social mechanisms and purposeful public policies would be involved in achieving the goals? How would the UAE avoid the developmental pitfalls of the variety we see elsewhere in the Middle East?
How would the UAE foster economic development and diversify its economy? Will the future growth be state-led, private Emirati led, reliant on foreign direct investment, or all of the above, and then in what proportion?
To what extent will the UAE rely on immigrant labor, expat expertise, market entrepreneurship?
Where do you see the desirable and feasible goals for Emiratization?
What role do you assign to oil industry? If not by oil alone, then what else?
What might be happening to family structures and demography as the country continues to modernize? Will the families grow bigger or smaller?
What would be happening to culture? What would it take to preserve traditions while also becoming a self-confident part of a larger world?
As you think through the optimistic scenarios, you can also show your awareness of the pitfalls and failures as discussed by James Gelvin and Roger Owen. How to avoid what went wrong in other places? Where the economic and political structures could need special reinforcement?
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