Gulf Research Centre Dubai ‘restructures’ 1, June 2011
Posted by thegulfblog.com in The Emirates.Tags: Dubai, Gulf Research Centre, Gulf Research Centre Dubai, UAE
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There have been rumours circulating for some time now that the various think tanks based in the Emirates were coming under severe pressure from the authorities. Now there is proof.
The Gulf Research Centre based in Dubai is, as it wistfully calls it, ‘restructuring’. Its permit to operate in Dubai expired after ten years in 2010 and it has not been renewed. Clearly, they are doing something right.
This is another nail in the coffin of the liberal dream of the UAE.
Curiously, GRC is relocating its staff to Jeddah(!) and also to Geneva and Cambridge. Best of luck to them.
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Cambridge: Massachusetts or England?
There is little curious about the relocation: GRC, which had built an international reputation, becoming recognised this year as the no. 2 think tank in the Arab world (after Carnegie), already had some activities in Saudi Arabia, as well as formal bases in Cambridge (where its 2nd Gulf Research Meeting wiull be held thisd July) and Geneva (where the GRC Foundation is based).
But it is indeed very sad – both for the huge personal effort and investment its founder-chairman, Dr Abdulaziz Sager, has poured in over the years, and for the reputation of the UAE. The Dubai government is where the formal approval for renewal had to be issued, but there can be little doubt that the real blockage lay elsewhere, somewhat to the southwest… Indeed a sign of the times for the trend of politics in the UAE as a whole.
England
Gerd, A pleasure to hear from you. I thought it was curious that they were relocating part of the operation to Jeddah in a kind of ‘out of the frying pan’ type of way. Cambridge and Geneva, of course, are already a part of their network.
GRC should wear this relocation as a badge of honor, befitting their no.2 ranking, as you mention
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