With Emiratis constituting only 15% of the total population of UAE, the majority non-citizen residents have come to be perceived as a challenge to both national security and emergent identity. This dual threat has been responsible for the UAE’s use of highly restrictive migrant labor policies for which it has been so widely criticized. Although it is necessary and inevitable that the UAE address the human rights concerns arising from this, this article focuses mainly on the factors that have created the need for these labor policies, clarifying the role of securitization discourse in the creation of their terms.

Iran has been in the forefront of international interest during the last years due to its nuclear program and strategic position for the Middle Eastern affairs. However, Iran’s internal political arena is equally turbulent to its international relations. After the 2009 elections and the crush of the Green Movement a new power struggle has emerged within the Iranian regime. President Ahmadinejad’s attempt to create a loyal elite around him was met with a fierce response from Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s side which stripped him off his power, attacked his associates and might even cancel the position of president itself. The outcome of this “internal war” is crucial for both regional and global politics

The Arab Spring swept countries which share many common denominators, one of which is the socioeconomic disparity. Inexorably, political turmoil causes economic havoc. The stability and prosperity of the economies that were affected by the Arab Spring are a major concern to all and sundry; namely to their people, to all the other countries in ME NA that managed to sharply “escape” the Arab Spring and, not to mention, the international community.