[JumpCrisscross]

> How come dubai hasn’t experienced any sanctions yet?

The UAE has crafted itself as a new Switzerland. (Qatar is trying to copy, but clumsily.)

They buy American weapons and financial assets, making them influential. They’ve also established themselves as a logistics hub in an important logistics channel to the West and Asia. (They also pitch their balancing effect on Saudi Arabia skillfully.)

[vjvjvjvjghv]

Also invested in soccer clubs.

[nixass]

> The UAE has crafted itself as a new Switzerland

And whenever someone is talking fondly about UAE that's all you need to know about that person

[smcin]

The comment merely said UAE has become strategically influential in finance, transport (cargo shipping (#5 in world), world's busiest international passenger airport), tourism. Nothing about being fond.

5% GDP growth in non-oil. More diversified than Saudi. #2 globally for being "easy to do business in and with". Top-10 in Global Soft Power Index since 2023 [0], rose from #18 in 2020. Dubai has become a global influencer capital.

Looks like the US is backing UAE as Saudi wanes, and as a regional counterweight.

If we're talking about Switzerland, yes it's a federal republic with semi-direct democracy, but it also happily supplied mercenaries to mainland Europe for several centuries.

[robotnikman]

>Looks like the US is backing UAE as Saudi wanes

How exactly are they waning? Last I heard everyone there was still as rich as ever due to the oil money.

[smcin]

In the long term, Venezuela has more proven reserves (but much less production capacity). Or nuclear + renewable will overtake fossil fuel. In either scenario, Saudi's share of total global energy production will likely decline by late 21st century.

And in non-oil GDP growth, UAE is currently outpacing Saudi.

As to "everyone there was still as rich as ever due to the oil money", depends on who "everyone" is: 77% of the total workforce in Saudi is migrant workers, many of whom earn < US$5000/yr. They're not citizens.

[nixass]

I never said anything about the OP, just merely adding to his point on what has UAE become

[JumpCrisscross]

> whenever someone is talking fondly about UAE that's all you need to know about that person

I’ve heard that line about Qatar, Uruguay, Singapore, Malta, Cyprus, the Maldives, and countless other small states.

I grew up in Switzerland. Folks like to compare themselves to us, mostly due to complete ignorance of our actual history and culture.

It’s true in part and misses the point in others. Geopolitically, however, the observation is sound. Small states need a powerful protector far away or to balance their position between nearby large states. The latter only works in mountainous hellholes and on peninsulas (provided your larger neighbor(s) can’t blockade you; if they can, you need a foreign guarantor with a blue-water navy, of which historically there have only been one or two at a time).

(You know Switzerland is a weapons exporter, right? To the U.S. But also to Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Hungary. One could almost say that folks who conclude intent from a place of ignorance communicate “all you need to know about” themselves.)

[idiotsecant]

I think the connotation of 'being Switzerland' has less to do with the modern state of Switzerland and more to do with the ... Unsavory things Switzerland has historically been a part of.

[esseph]

It's way more basic than that if you ask the average person. "Swiss neutrality/ banking"

[kakacik]

Most of them are patently incorrect, and most of those don't even care to educate themselves since they keep repeating cheap stuff they heard from other bright people and that's it. How many heard about accepting refugees despite being literally surrounded by axis and facing starvation of their own people (how many nations would do that including yours), or not-so-secret massive collaboration with western allies while on surface acting as neutral ie Campione d'Italia, and so on and on).

They were neutral in WWII like ie Spain was, think a bit what does it actually means. Not participating in conflict in any way. So they accepted both jewish and nazi gold or art, and everybody's else. If you want to understand why some of that was kept around after the war maybe reading about numbered accounts would enlight you. If you actually care to understand history as it happened.

Hitler had plans to conquer Switzerland after dealing with Russia, he was aware that they were 'most free and most armed nation in the world', fiercely independent and taking them would cost him dearly not only due to terrain.

Literally nobody had come out of WWII with properly clean slate, you just need to dig (not even deep) to find abhorable stuff on everybody, to different volume of course. Swiss have no problem acknowledging their mistakes, much more than most other nations.

[nkmnz]

So why do they repeat the same mistakes by hosting Putins family, laundering his money, and denying Germany to deliver Swiss-made air defense ammunition to Ukraine?

[Brian_K_White]

Perhaps, but that comment did not speak fondly about UAE.

One might say your own comment tells everyone all they need to know about you.

[nixass]

> Perhaps, but that comment did not speak fondly about UAE.

Where did I say I'm referring to OP? I'm merely adding to his point on what UAE is today