Middle East countries are learning to ‘build back better’

Talk of the UAE as “Little Sparta” is gone. That nickname, bestowed by former secretary of defense Jim Mattis, suggested an outsized role in regional conflicts that proved exhausting and ultimately counterproductive for the Emirates. The covid-19 pandemic, too, was devastating, with the UAE losing more than 50 percent of its revenue as tourism and oil processing collapsed, according to one official.