Abstract— The United Arab Emirates is an entity quite unlike any other country. Joined together through will, family bonds, tolerance and unwavering loyalty to founding father Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nayhan‘s vision, the UAE is altering preconceptions by the West and the Far East about what a Middle Eastern country can achieve. Expatriates make up an overwhelming majority of the population but the pull to live, work and holiday in the UAE is not just down to sunshine. The presence of Hollywood stars, cinematic business minds and a need to bring the UAE to the top, are influencing decisions to convert subtly used soft power into a profitable and socio-economic cultural whirlwind of success. The UAE is a rising star in the realm of the seventh art and this paper explores the relationship. Index Terms— Soft power, cinema, film industry, United Arab Emirates. I. INTRODUCTION TO SOFT POWER Henry Kissinger said: ―we are entering a new era. Old international patterns are crumbling; old slogans are uninstructive [sic]; old solutions are unavailable,‖ [1] in a 1975 conference addressing the United States‘ super power legacy, and whether or not the US would be able to continue with it. Perhaps at the time, when the Second World War was still in living memory and the Vietnam War was yet to end, this seemed dramatic, over-the-top scaremongering to a nation which, arguably through force and alongside their forceful allies were leaders in an arguably submissive or indifferent world. Fast forward forty years, and the concepts of old – where rebellions were met with force is, as predicated by Kissinger, arguably not the leading or most popular way to get what any nation and any leaders crave – power. Instead, human rights have been brought to the forefront, and the: ―ability to change the behaviour of states,‖ [2] through manipulation and ideology is considered the optimum way to convince an individual, company or country that what someone or something else has is what they should strive for. Termed co-optive or soft power, which will be used through this paper, Joesph. S. Nye Jr was a leading figure in realising and naming a phenomenon about: ―intangible power resources such as culture, ideology, and institutions,‖ [2] and recognising the actual power that these, in the hands of those possessing charismatic qualities, can wield. In relation to the United Arab Emirates, Khatib argues that although: ―the Middle East has been perceived globally as a place of conflict,‖ the media, including cinematic ventures H. Enser is a student of Media and Communication at the university of Wollongong in Dubai. (e-mail: hollyeolivia@gmail.com). S. Koshy is Associate Professor, Arts and Humanities at the University of Wollongong in Dubai, Dubai, UAE. (e-mail: swapnakoshy@uowdubai.ac.ae) . are giving the Middle East a: ―central position,‖ i n their storytelling dynamics [3]. There are many reasons for this, and this paper will identify other key aspects later, but arguably the most prominent reasons for using the United Arab Emirates as a production and filming base, outside of Western countries, is safety, ease of access and the financial incentives the government offers. II. SOFT POWER, CINEMA AND SAFETY IN THE UAE Wrongly or rightly depending on who is being asked, the Middle East has a reputation amongst its Western and Asian counterparts for conflict and for housing terror fundamentalists. Hollywood, as Viola Shafik explains in her book Arab Cinema: History and Cultural Identity: ―equates fundamentalism with killing, kidnapping and torture,‖ [4] and this has lead to film after film being created, in Hollywood at least, with Islam and Arabs portrayed as villains. Shaheen explains that before 9/11 there were around 1,100 films that portrayed Arabs in a negative way, and countless others after, such as The Kingdom (2007) and Traitor (2008) but he also exposes surprisingly: ―exporting films to the Middle East may be bad diplomacy, but is good business [5].‖With a large majority of the Middle Eastern population watching Hollywood blockbusters, this is something that arguably the leaders of United Arab Emirates, along with Queen Rania of Jordan have begun to subtly change through the use of soft power. In 2014, the UAE‘s Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, whilst addressing the United Nations General Assembly in regard to global safety and terrorist groups in the region stated: ―The acts of these terrorist organizations, which include indiscriminate killings, mass executions…are strongly condemned by the UAE [6].‖ Supporting this by agreeing with a united international stand against terrorism the United Arab Emirates challenged Western preconceptions that all Arabic nations are, in general, in support of terrorist groups. This preconception as Ridoauni explains: ―whether the contact took place in the foregone centuries or it happens recently, the West preserve a persisting conceptualization of the Arabs and Muslims as an alien ―Other‖ or rather ―Enemy,‖ [7] became arguably unsound. In keeping with founding father Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nayhan‘s vision for the UAE which stressed on diplomacy, patience and justice [8] the United Arab Emirates has become a beacon of Islamic positivism. From alternative cultural and religious acceptance, to a high respect for women and openness to different ways of thinking – the Emirates has laid more than just the foundations to nurture international relations, which include the cinema industry. However it is not just boldness in speaking out against terrorism and international injustices that is encouraging the dialogue between the West and the UAE. Arguably, it is the The Seventh Art as a Soft Power Source for the United Arab Emirates H. Enser and S.Koshy International Conference on Education, Humanities and Management (ICEHM-17) March 14-15, 2017 Dubai (UAE) http://dx.doi.org/10.15242/HEAIG/IAH0317536 143