Accelerating History

"How did you do this so quickly?” That question followed me across four European capitals last month. It surfaced in meetings with ministers, defence executives, policymakers and industry leaders representing some of the world’s most established defence industrial nations. They asked it not as a compliment, but as a genuine attempt to understand. During those engagements, our discussions ranged from advanced manufacturing and emerging technologies to industrial cooperation, supply-chain resilience and the future of defence capability. Yet regardless of the city, institution or agenda, one observation surfaced repeatedly: the UAE’s defence industrial transformation has become impossible to ignore.

What made these conversations remarkable was not the observation itself, but who was making it. These were representatives of nations that had spent generations building industrial capabilities shaped by wars, geopolitical competition, technological revolutions and decades of accumulated experience. Yet many expressed genuine curiosity about how a young nation as the UAE had emerged as a credible industrial, technological and defence partner on the global stage.

During the visit, we also witnessed the inauguration of EDGE Europe. At one level, it was the opening of a new international presence. At another, it symbolised something far more significant: the growing integration of the UAE’s industrial ecosystem into the global defence landscape. The reaction was telling. Industry leaders who once viewed EDGE as a newcomer were now discussing cooperation, co-development, technology partnerships and joint production. The conversation had shifted from whether the UAE could participate in the global defence industry to how others could participate alongside it.

Today, EDGE ranks among the world’s leading defence companies. For an organisation established only a few years ago, this is a remarkable achievement. Yet focusing solely on EDGE misses the larger story. The real question is not how a company became successful. The real question is how the conditions that made such success possible were created in the first place.

As I reflected on those discussions across Europe, I returned to the same question: how did the UAE achieve this so quickly? The answer extends far beyond defence. History teaches us that strategic autonomy is rarely built quickly. Europe’s industrial strength emerged through successive conflicts that forced nations to innovate, manufacture, adapt and rebuild. The US transformed economic and technological leadership into strategic dominance through decades of investment in science, industry and innovation. South Korea spent more than 40 years systematically building the industrial foundations that today position it among the world’s leading defence exporters. Turkey followed a similarly determined path, driven by national security imperatives and the pursuit of greater self-reliance. Different nations travelled different roads. Yet they shared one common advantage. Time.

The UAE faced a different reality. As a young nation operating in one of the world’s most dynamic and strategically sensitive regions, it could not rely on the luxury of waiting for history to create the conditions that had shaped the experiences of others. Nor could it assume that future security would always be available for purchase. The challenge was not whether strategic autonomy mattered. The challenge was whether the journey towards it could be accelerated.  Importantly, the UAE never sought shortcuts. There are no shortcuts to industrial competence, technological mastery or institutional maturity. The fundamental laws of national development remain unchanged. What can be accelerated, however, is learning.

One of the UAE’s greatest advantages was that it entered the industrial race later than many others. Rather than spending decades discovering what works through trial and error, it had the opportunity to study the experiences of those who had gone before it. The UAE’s ambition was never to replicate any single model. Instead, the UAE sought to understand what each experience could teach. Europe demonstrated the value of industrial depth. The US demonstrated the power of innovation at scale. South Korea demonstrated the discipline of long-term execution. Turkey demonstrated the strategic importance of indigenous capability development.

The UAE’s advantage was not that it discovered a new formula. Its advantage was that it could learn from all of them simultaneously. That may be one of the greatest benefits of arriving later. Not the ability to shorten the laws of success, but the ability to shorten the path towards understanding them. The UAE did not compress the laws of success. It compressed the learning cycle.

This philosophy became visible across nearly every aspect of national development. The first accelerator was leadership. Throughout history, one of the greatest barriers to national transformation has been the distance between vision and execution. In many countries, years can separate ambition from implementation. The UAE deliberately sought to shorten that distance, translating strategic objectives into institutions, partnerships, programmes and measurable outcomes with unusual consistency and speed.

The second accelerator was learning. Rather than allowing experience to accumulate slowly over generations, the UAE embraced a culture of continuous adaptation and international engagement. It actively pursued knowledge, forged partnerships and viewed global best practice not as something to admire, but as something to absorb, adapt and improve upon.

Across multiple sectors, the country combined technology partnerships, industrial participation programmes, knowledge transfer initiatives, joint development efforts and domestic infrastructure investments to accelerate learning cycles that historically required decades to mature. The objective was never merely to acquire technology. It was to acquire the capability to sustain innovation independently. Every partnership became more than a transaction. It became a platform for learning. The third accelerator was ecosystem development. Many nations focus on building individual capabilities. The UAE focused on building the environment that continuously produces capabilities.

Long before national champions emerged, investments were being made in industrial participation mechanisms, specialised industrial zones, advanced infrastructure, technology transfer programmes, regulatory frameworks, talent development and strategic partnerships. Capabilities can be acquired. Ecosystems must be built. It is precisely this ecosystem that enabled the emergence of globally competitive organisations such as EDGE. Their success is not an isolated achievement; it is evidence that the system itself is working.

Equally important, the UAE approached defence industrial development differently from many traditional models. In numerous countries, defence spending is often viewed primarily as a security cost. The UAE increasingly viewed it as a strategic investment: an investment in industrial capacity, technology, advanced manufacturing, human capital, and ultimately national resilience. This shift transformed defence from a consumption activity into a development catalyst. Security and economic development ceased to be separate conversations. They became mutually reinforcing objectives.

When confronted with direct security threats, the UAE demonstrated not only the ability to defend itself, but the ability to continue progressing while doing so. True resilience is not measured by how a nation performs in times of stability. It is measured by its ability to absorb shocks, adapt and continue advancing despite them.  As I reflected on those conversations across Europe, I realised that the most remarkable aspect of the UAE’s journey is not the recognition it receives today. Recognition is merely a consequence. The more significant achievement lies in decisions made years earlier: decisions to invest before necessity demanded it, to build before circumstances forced it, and to prepare before uncertainty arrived. History has traditionally been the great builder of national capability. Wars built some nations. Economic scale built others. Strategic necessity shaped many more.

The UAE chose a different path. Rather than waiting for history to shape its future, it chose to learn from history, anticipate the future, and build ahead of both.

— Europe built capability through history.

— America built it through scale.

— South Korea built it through discipline.

— Turkey built it through necessity.

The UAE built it through foresight. And in doing so, demonstrated that while history cannot be rewritten, it can be accelerated