On Could well perchance presumably also 13, the ruler of Abu Dhabi and President of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan handed away at the age of 73.
Born in 1948, Sheikh Khalifa modified into Abu Dhabi’s prime minister in 1969, two years sooner than the UAE won independence. He started serving as the Gulf nation’s 2nd president in November 2004 when he succeeded his father and the founder of the UAE, Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan.
Ethical after Sheikh Khalifa’s death, the ministry of presidential affairs presented 40 days of mourning and heads of express from around the sphere straight away equipped their condolences.
Hailing Sheikh Khalifa as “a apt associate and pal of the United States”, President Joe Biden pledged to “honour his memory by persevering with to supply a improve to the longstanding ties between the governments and people of the United States and the United Arab Emirates”.
Russian President Vladimir Putin credited him with having “performed worthy to supply a improve to pleasant relatives and positive cooperation between [Russia and the UAE]”.
Sheikh Khalifa presided over worthy of the UAE’s economic, technological, and social pattern, which raised the nation’s regional and international profiles. Quickly sooner than changing into president and ruler of Abu Dhabi, he ordered Etihad Airways’ advent and in 2008-09 Sheikh Khalifa performed a well-known characteristic in bailing out Dubai with billions of bucks of funds.
“By manner of fiscal insurance policies and developing Abu Dhabi to be a sustainable emirate he did reasonably a miniature bit, and furthermore in ensuring that the federal arrangement works in the Emirates. I mediate Sheikh Khalifa used to be the truth is well-known,” Courtney Freer, a fellow at Emory University, advised Al Jazeera.
“You’ve gotten these Emirates that are the truth is unequal by manner of wealth, to replacement of electorate, to size – all of these objects. The proven truth that he did bail out Dubai displays this commitment to the arrangement [and] to the solidarity of the nation.”
‘Centralized political energy’
After Sheikh Khalifa suffered a stroke in 2014, his brother Mohammed bin Zayed (MBZ), who modified into the crown prince of Abu Dhabi a decade earlier, took the helm. From that level on, Sheikh Khalifa used to be no longer continuously ever seen in public even supposing he persevered issuing decrees.
MBZ ascended to the online page of president of the UAE and ruler of Abu Dhabi on Saturday. Yet equipped that MBZ has of route been the nation’s de facto ruler since 2014, if no longer earlier, no main changes in day-to-day governance or main foreign policy shifts must be expected.
However, Sheikh Khalifa’s passing marks a proper generational shift, which has been in saunter with MBZ taking the reins of energy.
“There are some speculations that Abu Dhabi could presumably perchance non-public increasingly extra centralized political energy and of route this has been a pattern ongoing I’d order since no longer lower than 2014,” said Freer.
“There is extra centralization of energy in the arms of the Bani Fatima [the six sons of Fatima Bint Mubarak Al Kitbi, Sheikh Zayed’s third wife, known as the Mother of the Nation]… We would furthermore glimpse extra centralization of energy in preference to a selection of energy thru the federal arrangement.”
Andreas Krieg, an affiliate professor at the College of Security Studies at King’s College London, said he believes this is succesful of be the case.
“With MBZ now formally changing into the president, it’s certain that the Al Nahyan are changing into the royal household of the UAE. That’s a pattern that can indubitably lead to extra integration and extra concentration of energy in Abu Dhabi, and never more and never more of federalism [with] extra centralization, which roughly undermines the raison d’être of how the UAE took discipline [more than] 50 years ago.”
An delivery ask that is very well-known to the UAE’s future is who will change MBZ as the nation’s next crown prince of Abu Dhabi. Mindful of how worthy energy in the Emirates has centralized in Abu Dhabi, this is succesful of presumably furthermore infrequently resolve who is the next crown prince of the UAE.
Experts agree there are two presumably contenders. The first is Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, a member of the Abu Dhabi Govt Council and Chairman of Abu Dhabi Govt Office. Portfolios below him consist of some in the enviornment of data security and domestic intelligence.
The 2nd is UAE’s National Security Adviser Tahnoun bin Zayed Al Nahyan who furthermore runs key portfolios in the authorities. Each and each are highly effective men in Abu Dhabi with get entry to to necessary networks in the UAE.
“There has been reasonably a miniature bit of war internally in Abu Dhabi between [these two contenders] that’s been going on for extra than a year. We glimpse Tahnoun looking out to get extra leverage over the scheme. He seems to be to be the extra seemingly replacement, brooding about his energy and his internet networks in Abu Dhabi, to change into the next crown prince of Abu Dhabi,” Krieg advised Al Jazeera.
“The ask is how prolonged is [MBZ] going to rule. It could well presumably perchance be two an extended time, by which time furthermore Tahnoun is going to be very primitive. So there is an evident replacement to the truth is groom Khaled [10 years younger than Tahnoun] to change into the next crown prince or to change into the next ruler of Abu Dhabi and the UAE in 20 years’ time,” added Krieg.
Balance is priority
Then again, observers of this succession job must furthermore consider of the proven truth that the UAE could presumably furthermore no longer firmly screech a Crown Prince any time soon. Doing so is no longer required in the present day. For the management in Abu Dhabi, asserting brotherly love and stability in the nation is the priority.
Regardless of who replaces MBZ as the next crown prince of Abu Dhabi, a sensitive ask price raising is – how would Abu Dhabi, Dubai, and the opposite 5 Emirates repeat to one but every other in the post-Sheikh Khalifa duration if the fresh UAE president takes steps to transform the nation into a unitary express?
Perchance time will expose.
Yet for now, the UAE has sustained itself as a prosperous federation that overcame many of the governance challenges of the past.
MBZ formally changing into president of the UAE and ruler of Abu Dhabi highlights how “this union, which is tranquil reasonably fresh, has staying energy”, pointed out Freer.
“There is this commitment beyond correct the first technology of rulers. If people noticed the UAE as a network of non-public fiefdoms, the proven truth that the arrangement is asserting itself infrequently disproves that thought and displays that there could be longevity on this plot, which people early on per chance did no longer glimpse.”