Abstract The literature examining national militaries in the Arab world paints a near-universally bleak picture of their capabilities. Some argue issues rooted in “Arab culture”—so-called essentialist rationales—fatally undermine military effectiveness. Others assert that regime security concerns encourage leaders to actively politicize, coup-proof, and consequently weaken their military. This article challenges these literatures by demonstrating that United Arab Emirates (UAE) forces have repeatedly exemplified unusual levels of military effectiveness and sophistication in hostile campaigns. Using approaches from public policy studies (the Advocacy Coalition Framework), this paper investigates how the UAE military bucked the trend. The 1990 invasion of Kuwait was a “focusing event” that prompted a rethink of existing approaches. Catalyzed, a key “policy entrepreneur,” Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, changed approaches to training, unified federal militaries, and tested forces in challenging operations. Such findings undercut lingering essentialist critiques of Arab militaries, provide a potential pathway for other states to emulate, demonstrate that secure and motivated leaders can overcome coup-proofing concerns, and showcase the fruitful pollination of methodologies from public policy to security studies.

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逆势而上：阿联酋与阿拉伯世界军事能力的发展

摘要 研究阿拉伯世界国家军队的文献描绘了他们能力的近乎普遍的黯淡图景。一些人认为，植根于“阿拉伯文化”的问题——所谓的本质主义理论——会致命地破坏军事效力。其他人则断言，政权安全问题鼓励领导人积极政治化，防止政变，从而削弱他们的军队。本文通过证明阿拉伯联合酋长国 (UAE) 军队在敌对行动中反复体现出异常的军事效力和复杂程度来挑战这些文献。本文使用公共政策研究（倡导联盟框架）的方法，调查阿联酋军队如何逆势而上。1990 年入侵科威特是一个“焦点事件”，促使人们重新思考现有方法。催化，阿布扎比王储穆罕默德·本·扎耶德·阿勒纳哈扬 (Mohammed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan) 是一位重要的“政策企业家”，他改变了训练方法，统一了联邦军队，并在具有挑战性的行动中测试了部队。这些发现削弱了对阿拉伯军队挥之不去的本质主义批评，为其他国家提供了一个潜在的效仿途径，证明安全和积极的领导人可以克服政变问题，并展示从公共政策到安全研究的方法论的卓有成效的授粉。