In the midst of the Middle East's power struggles, Iran, Turkey and Saudi Arabia are all striving to achieve regional dominance through proxy battles and games of political and diplomatic tug-of-war. Saudi Arabia is the most influential and active Arab power in the fray, but another Gulf state — the United Arab Emirates — is starting to muscle in on its preserve. Characterizing the small but increasingly ambitious country as a rookie upstart intruding on its much larger neighbor's domain fails to capture the essence of the Saudi-Emirati relationship. Abu Dhabi, in fact, is proving that it has much to teach Riyadh. An Apt Pupil Similar geopolitical circumstances have fostered common strategic thinking and foreign policy aims in the two countries. The United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia are both predominantly Sunni Arab monarchies with a considerable dependence on expatriate labor.