Deserts, like any geographic setting, are not sites where geopolitical dramas simply unfold or “touch down”; rather, they actively constitute geopolitical orders. This article shows how taking deserts rather than states as an entry point can provide a unique lens on geopolitics, state making, and empire. Investigating the political lives of deserts requires asking how they are imagined, narrated, and connected across space and time, and with what effect. To do so, I consider one case of desert-to-desert connection: a long but little-known history of exchange between individuals and institutions in Arizona and the Arabian Peninsula. Taking one example from this history, I show how the “desert” as an environmental imaginary figured in the University of Arizona Environmental Research Laboratory’s joint greenhouse and desalting plant, which was initiated in Abu Dhabi in the late 1960s. Primarily drawing from archival research in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Arizona, I also show how this project fit into shifting geopolitical relations in the Arabian Peninsula’s colonial relations, the rise of the UAE as an independent state, and the role of experts working in the service of broader political agendas of the state and the academy, as well as their own self-interest.

沙漠，就像任何地理环境一样，都不是地缘政治戏剧简单地展开或“降落”的地方。相反，它们积极地构成了地缘政治秩序。本文展示了如何将沙漠而不是国家作为切入点，可以如何提供关于地缘政治，国家建立和帝国的独特视角。要研究沙漠的政治生活，需要询问他们如何在空间和时间上进行想象，叙述和联系，以及产生什么影响。为此，我考虑了一个沙漠到沙漠的联系：在亚利桑那州和阿拉伯半岛的个人和机构之间进行交流的历史悠久，但鲜为人知。以这段历史为例，我展示了亚利桑那大学环境研究实验室联合温室和脱盐工厂中如何将“沙漠”想象成一种环境假想，它于1960年代后期在阿布扎比发起。主要来自阿拉伯联合酋长国（UAE）和亚利桑那州的档案研究，我还展示了该项目如何适应阿拉伯半岛殖民关系中地缘政治关系的转变，阿联酋作为独立国家的崛起以及专家工作的作用服务于国家和学院的更广泛的政治议程，以及自身的利益。