Globalization and Security Environment: Visions of Prosperity and Peace Essay

Abstract

The three main resources in the UAE are water, oil and human capital. The economic dominance of the UAE in the Arabian Peninsula makes it vulnerable to resource-based conflicts. Such conflicts can affect the regional security of the Middle East. The policy initiatives needed to ensure that the country remains stable are as follows. On water, the country needs to match its groundwater consumption to the replenishment rate of its aquifers. Secondly, the country needs policies that will help to increase water production through desalination.

Thirdly, the country needs policies that will enforce water conservation initiatives. On oil, the country needs policies to govern oil exploitation. These policies should favour longevity of oil reserves over short-term benefits of high production. Secondly, the country needs to pursue economic policies favouring further diversification of its economy. Thirdly, the country needs to develop policies to govern human capital. The policy areas in this regard include citizenship, social stability, and immigration.

The UAE is a modern miracle in economic development terms. The country was insignificant in any regard until the middle of the twentieth century when it struck oil. The country has since shown that it is possible to transform any country regardless of its past. The discovery of oil in the UAE made it a country of interest in regards to the global oil supply chain.

Apart from oil, the country has limited natural resources. However, it has used its resources to market itself as a business hub in the Arabian Peninsula. This paper explores policies regarding water and other resources that will best serve the interests of the UAE and the surrounding region.

Resources in the UAE

Besides oil, the UAE and the surrounding region does not have significant quantities of other natural resources. The most precious resources in the region are water, oil and human capital.

Water

The water situation in the UAE is one of the main concerns of the government. The country has very little fresh water within its borders. The country receives about 120 mm of rain annually (Zenter, 2011). This quantity of rainfall cannot meet its recurrent water needs. Therefore, the country relies on groundwater for most of its fresh water supplies.

The challenge the country needs to address urgently is how best to manage the dwindling resource. The country’s water table has been falling by 1 meter each year since 1980 (Zenter, 2011). The country has access to plenty of sea water. However, it must desalinise the water before using it. The current desalination capacity can only supply 36% of the country’s fresh water needs (Abdellatif & Othman, 2008).

Oil

The second main resource in the UAE is oil. The country holds 8% of the world’s proven oil reserves (OPEC, 2013). The discovery of oil changed the fortunes of the UAE and is behind its current status as a regional hub. It is currently one of the most advanced economies in the Middle East. Oil and gas currently account for 40% of the country’s GDP (OPEC, 2013).

The country’s leaders took note of the inevitable decline of oil economies after the exhaustion of reserves. They responded by pursuing a long term strategy that would make the UAE less dependent on oil, and more dependent on trade. Apart from oil, the country also has natural gas deposits that contribute to its overall petroleum production. The UAE is a member of OPEC, and markets its petroleum products based on the quota allocated by OPEC.

Human Resource

The third resource of interest in the UAE is labour. The UAE opened its borders to skilled migrant workers when it realised that it did not have the human capital needed to develop and manage a modern economy. The country allowed many professionals from various countries to migrate to the UAE to boost its human resource shortfall.

The current population of the UAE stands at 8.4 million (OPEC, 2013). UAE citizens account for only 12% of the total population in the country (IATA, 2012). The country heavily relies on migrant workers for professional services. In recent years, many low skilled workers have gone to the UAE to do menial jobs, which the locals find unattractive.

Impact of Resources on Regional Security

Several regional security concerns arise from the three resources reviewed above. Water supply is a growing security issue in the Arabian Peninsula. Access to fresh water is the most significant concern in the UAE because of dwindling fresh water reserves (Zenter, 2011).

This situation is the same for most of the countries in the region. The cost of fresh water will increase and may lead to conflicts among various states. The second concern in the region is the contamination of groundwater. Many countries in the region depend on groundwater to meet domestic needs.

The increasing number of wells in the region is a concern to environmental activists. These wells are a conduit for groundwater contaminants. Apart from the water wells, the drilling of oil and gas wells also contaminates groundwater (Abdellatif & Othman, 2008). The combination of limited sources of fresh water, excessive recovery of groundwater and the contamination of groundwater is making water a rising security concern in the region.

Oil and gas exploration in the Arabian Peninsula is a source of security concerns for the region. First, most of the world’s known oil reserves are in the Middle East (OPEC, 2013). Some analysts blame the oil in the region for some of the long standing conflicts staged there.

Oil is a central part of American foreign policy. This makes the region vulnerable to the interests of world powers. Activists condemned the American invasion of Iraq by claiming that the US was securing its oil supplies by toppling the Saddam regime. Secondly, all petroleum resources will eventually run out in the future.

The duration it will take to deplete known resources varies from country to country. If the countries in the Arabian Peninsula fail to diversify their economies, they face imminent danger of economic stagnation. When oil production starts to wind down, the region will experience recession, social unrest, loss of jobs and intense competition for opportunities (Chapin, 2010). The only safeguard is to diversify the economies of the region to make them less reliant on petroleum.

The third set of impacts related to the resources in the region relates to human resource shortfalls. The first main concern is espionage. The UAE relies on foreign professionals to manage key sectors of its economy. Such reliance makes the country vulnerable to espionage because some of the professionals may be spies.

This exposes the entire region to the risk of espionage because the UAE can serve as a base for the operations of spy rings, and terrorist. The large number of foreign nationals also makes the country vulnerable to a human resource shortfall in the event of fallouts with the countries that provide its human capital (Gómez-Mejía, Balkin, & Cardy, 2010).

This can lead to a collapse of the UAE economy. Such a collapse would have significant consequences for the region because the UAE is a commercial hub. This assessment shows that the UAE must implement policies that will safeguard its existence as a country and its growing role as a regional hub.

Policy Options

The water situation in the UAE requires careful planning to ensure that the country attains sustainable water production and consumption levels. The three main issues that the water policy should address include how to manage groundwater resources, the use of desalinized water, and water conservation.

Water Policy

Water policy options that the UAE government needs to consider fall within three categories. The first set of options is maximising water recovery. The specific policies under this option include sustainable use of groundwater, expanding desalination capacity and rainwater harvesting. The second set of policies deals with water conservation. The specific policies here include use of water conserving irrigation methods, and the use of water conserving implements. The third policy option is water recycling.

Groundwater in the UAE is the predominant source of freshwater in the country. The current rate of consumption is not sustainable because it leads to an annual drop in the level of groundwater by a meter.

The policy direction the country should take is to cap the amount of groundwater consumption at a level that is equivalent to the natural replenishment rate.Secondly, the country must do everything on its part to eliminate groundwater contamination. It must ensure that oil fields and water wells do not transfer contaminants to groundwater.

The second policy issue the UAE should address is sea water desalination. Sea water is the largest water resource for the country. Currently, desalinised water accounts for 36% of the country’s water supply (Abdellatif & Othman, 2008). However, desalination costs bars widespread recovery of sea water. The country needs to commit more resources towards the improvement of desalination processes.

This will increase the quantity and quality of desalinised water available for use in the country. Secondly, the country needs to expand its current desalination capacity. A phased approach will yield the best results. For instance, the country can make a commitment to increase the contribution of desalinised water to its national consumption by 5% every year.

The third area that the country needs to look at is how to conserve current water resources through better management strategies. Already, the country operates several water recycling facilities. However, the per capita consumption of water in the UAE is one of the highest in the world (OPEC, 2013).

This means that if the government adopts a policy that will encourage sustainable consumption, the country will benefit more from existing resources. Conservation is one of the areas where the UAE has most space in regards to its water management initiatives. The specific ideas that the country can use are as follows.

First, the government needs to encourage the agricultural sector to use water conserving irrigation methods such as drip irrigation, rather than water intensive methods such as flood irrigation (Pereira, Cordery, & Lacovides, 2009).

Drip irrigation works by ensuring that all the water used in irrigation goes to the roots of the plant, rather than to the soil around the plant. In this way, it reduces the amount of water lost to evaporation. This can lead to water savings of up to 80% in the agricultural sector. This method is very effective in other arid areas of the world such as Israel.

Secondly, there is need to implement policies that will reduce the amount of water used for domestic purposes. Domestic consumption is one of the largest uses of water in the UAE.

One application of this option will be in water used for flushing toilets. The design of the water cisterns found in lavatories dictates the amount of water used for flushing the toilet. It is possible to encourage contractors to use water conserving cisterns that use lesser quantities of water. The amount of water that an individual uses per day for lavatory uses is about 30 litres (Pereira, Cordery, & Lacovides, 2009).

If the new cisterns use 50% of this quantity, then the country can cut its domestic water use by a large percentage. Implementing this measure will require the government to legislate on the type of water cisterns used in the country. At the same time, the government will also need to implement measures that will force all households and institutions to retrofit their cisterns with water conserving ones within a specified period.

The third main option that the UAE government can use to conserve water is by setting up water recycling systems to enable the country to reuse waste water (Escobar & Schäfer, 2009). Water from kitchens and bathrooms can be purified for use in the agricultural sector. In fact, even water recovered from sewers can be recycled for agricultural uses.

Theoretically speaking, water from any source can be made portable again for any use (Escobar & Schäfer, 2009). However, the cultural and social norms will make it difficult for people to accept recycled black water for consumption. In this regard, the country must create systems that will enable it to recycle its water to reduce its need for new water resources.

The fourth area that the UAE leaders should examine is water harvesting (Barron & Salas, 2009). It is true that the country receives very little rainfall every year compared to her neighbours. This does not mean that the country cannot benefit from the rain water. The country should enact policies that will make water harvesting a priority for the country.

The best way to approach this would be to pass new building codes that will require all buildings to install water harvesting facilities. These facilities include gutters and storage tanks. At the same time, municipal authorities should tap water that flows into storm drains for purification (Barron & Salas, 2009). Rain water captured in storm drains is easy to purity and use for normal domestic consumption.

Petroleum Policy

Soon after the discovery of oil, the UAE government accepted that the oil reserves in the country would eventually run out. Most of the current economic initiatives were the result of long-term thinking that sought to transform the country into a global trade and transit hub. The proper management of the exploitation of petroleum resources is vital for the long-term interests of the country. In this regard, the country needs to develop several policies to derive maximum benefits from its oil wealth.

The first policy the country needs to develop is one that will govern oil extraction. According to industry experts, each oil field has a fixed production capacity (OPEC, 2013). Oil production from a well usually reaches a peak and then declines steadily until commercial exploitation becomes unreasonable. In this regard, the UAE should plan its oil production to ensure that its oil deposits last long enough for it to transfer the wealth to other sectors of its economy.

The specific policies in this regard should be as follows. The country should establish a criterion for choosing the peak amount of oil to produce. This will ensure that the oil wealth lasts for several generations. Secondly, the country must continue to explore for oil especially in the sea. Any new deposits will add to its current oil wealth and will lead to more prosperity for the country.

The second policy issue that the country needs to address is the further diversification of its economy. The country stands to benefit from diversifying its economy even further as its oil wealth dwindles. Already the current contribution of oil to the country’s GDP is remarkable.

Oil accounts for 40% of the country’s GDP, while in other countries such as Nigeria, oil accounts for 95% of the country’s GDP (Zenter, 2011). The initiatives such as the Dubai free port are very good models of the nature of diversification the country should pursue.

The construction of the Dubai Health City is a welcome move in this regard. The country is also positioning itself as the financial capital of the Middle East (Kazmi, 2008). Already the presence of Emirates Airways and Etihad Airlines is making the country an air transport hub (IATA, 2012). In addition, the country is a shipping transit route. The government must enact policies that will protect these industries and catalyse their expansion.

Human Resource Policy

The UAE must guard its multicultural human capital zealously. The country owes its current position to their input. Based on the risks associated with a large foreign population, the country needs to develop policies that will address the following issues.

First, the country needs to develop robust policies to deal with immigration. The country currently attracts migrant workers from the Arabian Peninsula and the world. Most of the migrant workers from other parts of the world are skilled professionals looking for opportunities in the region.

However, the migrant workers from the locality are mainly low-skilled workers looking for menial jobs in the UAE. While the UAE has benefited a lot from migrant workers, it must protect itself against an uncontrolled influx of migrant workers if it cannot provide them with jobs. The country is one of the leading economies in the region. As such, many people from the nearby countries find it very attractive to go to the UAE to look for opportunities.

Secondly, the UAE needs to develop better policies on how to attain citizenship. Currently, for someone to become a citizen of the UAE, that person must first live in the UAE for twenty years. While this measure controls the number of people seeking to become UAE citizens, it discourages migrant workers who add value to the country’s economy from settling permanently in the country. The US became a superpower based on how it managed migrants (Gómez-Mejía, Balkin, & Cardy, 2010).

The US valued skilled migrants and made the path to citizenship easy for them. The result was that they transferred their allegiance to the US and contributed to its national growth. Giving skilled workers an easier route to citizenship will also reduce cases of espionage and leaking of the country’s secrets. The country should also develop a policy to govern dual citizenship for people who want this option.

The third policy area that the UAE needs to look at carefully is the long term social stability of the country. The citizens of the UAE make up only 12% of the national population (OPEC, 2013). This is a very unique demographic indicator. The danger associated with this is that the country can experience social unrest in the event of a resource conflict (Chapin, 2010).

If the locals feel that the migrant workers are taking over what is theirs, it can lead to xenophobic attacks similar to the ones that took place in South Africa in 2010. The national policies should show preference to UAE nationals in areas such as access to employment opportunities, healthcare, and social services. The policy should also address the social needs of migrant workers because they form a significant portion of UAE’s population.

Conclusion

The UAE is doing well on several fronts in comparison to many countries in the Arabian Peninsula. However, the country must deal with several strategic challenges relating to its major resources. It is vital for the country to develop a robust set of policies to govern its natural wealth and acquired resources for its long term stability.

References

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Barron, J., & Salas, J. C. (2009). Rainwater Harvesting: A Lifeline for Human Well-Being. Nairobi: UNEP.

Chapin, R. (2010). Social Policy for Effective Practice: A Strengths Approach. New York: Francis & Taylor.

Escobar, I. C., & Schäfer, A. (2009). Sustainable Water for the Future: Water Recycling versus Desalination. New York: Elsevier.

Gómez-Mejía, L., Balkin, D., & Cardy, R. (2010). Managing Human Resources. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

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