“Strategic autonomy remains the UAE’s enduring choice,” Dr Anwar Gargash, diplomatic adviser to President Sheikh Mohamed, recently observed.
This principle applies within the Gulf and Arab worlds and far beyond them. Far from contradicting collective action, the UAE’s approach is grounded in constructive dialogue and institutional consultation that support collective security, national interests and state sovereignty.
The UAE’s foreign policy, shaped by multilateralism and strategic autonomy, reflects a deliberate effort to diversify options in an increasingly fragmented world. This is most evident in areas such as food and health security, the energy transition, advanced technologies and global trade. Abu Dhabi seeks not merely to consume solutions, but to act as a partner and producer – while remaining agile in a rapidly evolving and increasingly unconventional global economic environment.
There is no such thing as absolute strategic autonomy in today’s deeply interconnected international system. Nor does the UAE claim the mantle of a global power. Rather, it is an ambitious middle power with a regionally influential economy, seeking to contribute pragmatically to a geopolitical landscape marked by uncertainty, polarisation and disruption. Through diplomacy, trade and sustained engagement with partners and allies, the UAE aims to navigate – and help stabilise – the shifting dynamics of globalisation, supply chains and connectivity.
From an Emirati perspective, strategic autonomy is inseparable from multilateralism. Multilateral engagement is not a tactical convenience but a strategic necessity: a means of managing risk while simultaneously unlocking opportunity. For middle powers, it offers a pathway to reduce polarisation, resist zero-sum competition and expand the space for co-operation in an increasingly divided international system.
Trade policy provides a clear illustration. Alongside its bilateral Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreements, the UAE has positioned itself as a leading advocate of open, inclusive and rules-based trade. It has invested heavily in modernising trade infrastructure and facilitating supply chains – an approach designed to preserve economic openness at a time when protectionism and fragmentation are gaining ground.
Technology is now central to this strategy. Digitalisation and artificial intelligence are reshaping global trade, offering new opportunities for inclusion, efficiency and transparency. From the UAE’s viewpoint, technology can enable less developed economies and small and medium-sized enterprises to participate more equitably in global markets, while strengthening supply chain resilience. But this requires more than innovation alone: it demands supportive regulatory frameworks and co-ordinated international adoption.
As Dr Sultan Al Jaber, Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology, noted at the opening of Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week last week, economic power is increasingly measured by computational and digital capacity. Yet there is no AI without energy. This reality underscores a broader transformation: major technology firms are redefining power in ways that were once the exclusive domain of states.
In this emerging “technopolar” world, large technology companies have become geopolitical actors in their own right, shaping national policies and global debates. Their influence does not make them independent of states, but it does complicate traditional notions of power. Governments, including those in the Gulf, are now competing to ensure that strategic technologies remain aligned with national interests and sovereign decision-making.
Fragmentation and economic decoupling pose clear risks to global trade and growth. Yet the UAE sees opportunity alongside disruption. As Minister of State for Foreign Trade Thani Al Zeyoudi has argued, shifting supply chains allow countries to diversify partnerships and reduce vulnerability to great-power competition, tariffs and sanctions. The future of globalisation will be shaped not by ideology, but by pragmatic calculations of national interest.
These shifts coincide with a deeper structural transformation: the move towards knowledge-based economies, the growing centrality of services over goods and the rising influence of the Global South. For the UAE, strategic autonomy means preparing for this future – one in which AI, quantum computing and innovation-driven growth redefine competitiveness.
This logic also informs the UAE’s approach to global institutions. Its decision to join Brics, for example, is not aimed at counterbalancing the US or the West, with whom co-operation continues to deepen. Rather, participation in Brics – alongside engagement with platforms such as the G20 and the Shanghai Co-operation Organisation – reflects a commitment to diversification and multilateral engagement.
In a fragmented international order and an unstable global economy – exacerbated by deep political polarisation in the US – middle powers face narrowing strategic space. Abu Dhabi has expressed hope that Brics can contribute to a more balanced, rules-based international system rooted in genuine multilateralism and mutual respect. So far, that promise remains only partially fulfilled.
Should Brics evolve into a more constructive and consensus-oriented forum, it could help address structural imbalances in the global system. For countries like the UAE, this would expand strategic autonomy, enable diversification of partnerships and reduce exposure to zero-sum competition. The objective is not to choose sides, but to preserve flexibility in an increasingly rigid world.
Yet the risks are real. Growing pressure – particularly from major powers – to frame trade, technology and security co-operation in zero-sum terms threatens to constrain middle powers’ room for manoeuvre. Non-alignment between Washington and Beijing is becoming more costly, and strategic ambiguity harder to sustain.
This is precisely why diversification matters. By spreading risk across security, trade and diplomacy, states can avoid overdependence on any single power. As experience from countries such as Singapore and Estonia shows, niche expertise and specialised capabilities can generate disproportionate influence. Strong domestic governance and social cohesion further underpin resilience, while external pressures become most dangerous when they exploit internal divisions.
For the UAE, strategic autonomy is a long-term policy choice rooted in pragmatism, diversification and multilateral engagement. In an era of fragmentation and rivalry, it reflects a middle power’s effort to navigate uncertainty without surrendering agency, and to pursue co-operation without becoming captive to confrontation.
