On May 22, 2026, the College of Public Policy (CPP) at the University of Sharjah hosted a session of its "Let's Talk Global Affairs" seminar series, welcoming Akram Zaoui of the Observer Research Foundation for a wide-ranging discussion on whether the MENA region can turn its growing economic weight into lasting regional stability.

Mr. Zaoui opened by situating the region within four global transitions reshaping the world order: climate, demography, geopolitics, and technology. He argued that today's defining feature is "fusion" — the blurring of boundaries between previously separate fields such as digital technology, biotechnology, and physical industry, and between geographies such as Eurasia, the Indo-Pacific, and what scholars have termed "Afro-Arabia," the shared space linking Africa and the Arabian Peninsula. The MENA region, he noted, sits at the crossroads of all three.

Turning to geoeconomics itself, Mr. Zaoui traced the concept to the fusion of economics, national security, and foreign policy that has intensified since the first Trump presidency, giving rise to ideas such as economic security and economic statecraft — the use of financial and commercial tools to advance strategic goals. While the region continues to face high unemployment, the middle-income trap, conflict, and displacement, it also sits close to what McKinsey has called the shifting "center of gravity" of the global economy, anchored by Gulf sovereign wealth funds, ports, and airports that now play a central role in global trade and technology investment.

The session traced this dynamic back to the 1970s, when institutions such as the Arab Monetary Fund, the Abu Dhabi Fund for Development, the OPEC Fund, and the Islamic Development Bank were created to channel Gulf resources toward regional solidarity — a pattern later described in research on "Gulf bailout diplomacy." Mr. Zaoui argued that this model is now evolving from one-off emergency support toward long-term, win-win investment partnerships.

 

He illustrated this shift with three recent examples: Abu Dhabi and Qatari investment pledges exceeding 60 billion USD in Egypt since 2024, supporting its currency and economy through tourism and real estate projects; a deep UAE-Morocco partnership spanning telecommunications infrastructure and renewable energy; and emerging Gulf engagement with Syria's new leadership, including Saudi and UAE investment commitments announced in 2026.

The discussion closed with an active question-and-answer session. Participants and Mr. Zaoui explored the risks that could derail this momentum, chiefly regional geopolitical volatility and weak institutions; the importance of governance quality, citing Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson's "Why Nations Fail"; the limits of GDP as a measure of national success; how competitive Gulf investment can be channeled constructively rather than destructively; and the diversity of capitalist models — Western, Asian, Chinese, and an emerging Arab variant — shaping the region's economic future.

Closing the session, we thanked Mr. Zaoui for an insightful presentation and announced that CPP looks forward to continuing the collaboration with the Observer Research Foundation in the coming semester.