아프리카ㆍ중동

The UAE is one of the representative tribal societies in the Middle East. The traditions of tribalism are deeply rooted in various fields of the UAE society. Among many fields, the tradition of tribalism has made significant influence on the maintenance of authority and power of the ruling family and their political mechanism. Even though the UAE has followed such western political systems of democracy as the presidential system and check and balance through separation of power since its establishment in the 1971, the tradition of tribalism still remains strongly in the political system of the UAE. In this respect, the aim of this article is to explore the major political elites in the UAE who govern and make the political decisions, and their relations to the tribalism in the UAE. For this purpose, the paper will examine the current situation of tribes who are residing in the UAE and their distributions. The paper will also highlight the current ruling tribes and the way they use tribalism in the process of seizing, relinquishing, and distributing of the political power. Even though most Arabs were nomads based on tribalism, the study has been ignored so far in Korea. The result will evokes further study on tribalism.