Bolsters my thesis that DubaiExpo is fabulous microcosm for parsing UAE foreign policy. Turkey pavilion foyer features drone, which seemed weirdly hostile at first but like good product placement in retrospect. Helpful info here from @NailOlpak dailysabah.com/business/econo…
Slight tangent: I’d worried DubaiExpo might be a little too family-fun-fair for me, but have absolutely loved visiting bc it opens fascinating vistas into the tone & substance of diplomatic ties. Can teach TONS about how countries perceive & advertise themselves to Gulf/world
Some countries have far larger pavilions than you’d expect (Angola, Serbia, Kazakhstan). Others have surprisingly small ones (Turkey w/ its petite drone-displayed-by-the-doorway pavilion here pops to mind). Exploring why can illuminate bilateral relations in fascinating ways.
Some countries’ pavilions embody practical, Powerpoint-esque product placement. Others craft more subtle visions of what they claim to stand for or might offer the world. Saudi Arabia’s pavilion arguably advances stunning symbolism of innovative, artistic modernity for example
Israel & “State of Palestine” pavilions are barely a block away from one another. Visiting these back-to-back offers rich insights into self-perception & external goals/ representations of both actors here in the Gulf. Plus the mana’eesh at the Palestine pavilion is to die for.
I could drone on (no pun intended) forever about the wonders of DubaiExpo for politics nerds—seriously, one could write a book on this—but I’ll end w/ an ode of gratitude to my very favourite pavilion so far. The one & only Turkmenistan. Here’s the screen you see at the entrance: 
And here’s a shot of the 360° screen video shown inside. Needless to say, this experience instantly skyrocketed Turkmenistan to the top of my “countries I must visit forthwith” list.
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