United Arab Emirates’ Pursuit of Soft Power through Cultural Diplomacy and Its Challenges

Using the qualitative methodology for the textual analysis of primary and secondary sources, this study examines the United Arab Emirates’ (UAE’s) cultural diplomacy strategies aimed at achieving soft power and their attendant challenges. The study reveals that the UAE has heavily invested in a diverse cultural diplomacy program such as flagship museums, iconic religious buildings, hosting major sporting events, and serving as an international educational hub. These initiatives’ objective is to harness influence, brand the nation positively, and burnish its regional and global reputation. Nevertheless, the UAE’s cultural diplomacy strategies face numerous challenges: concerns about motives for cultural infrastructural investments; cultural appropriation and authenticity of the cultural projects; balancing foreign cultural projects against Emirati cultural and Islamic values; and the cost and sustainability of the cultural investments in the face of competing domestic needs. Furthermore, cultural infrastructure construction depends heavily on migrant labor, which has attracted international human right criticisms about workers’ treatment. Left unchecked, such criticisms can overshadow the UAE’s goals of cultural diplomacy. Finally, the UAE needs to intensify its ongoing domestic cultural promotion to overcome integration challenges associated with attracting buy-in from its multicultural population.