The United Arab Emirates: Issues for U.S. Policy

Kenneth Katzman | Congressional Research Service | 2010-06-23

"The UAE's relatively open borders, economy, and society have won praise from advocates of expanded freedoms in the Middle East while producing financial excesses, social ills such as prostitution and human trafficking, and relatively lax controls on sensitive technologies acquired from the West. These concerns-as well as concerns about the UAE oversight and management of a complex and technically advanced initiative such as a nuclear power program-underscored dissatisfaction among some Members of Congress with a U.S.-UAE civilian nuclear cooperation agreement. The agreement was signed on May 21, 2009, and submitted to Congress that day. It entered into force on December 17, 2009."