4 to 1,523 m: 9
under 914 m: 5 (1998 est.)

Heliports: 2 (1998 est.)

Military

Military branches: Army, Navy, Air Force, Air Defense,
paramilitary (includes Federal Police Force)

Military manpower--military age: 18 years of age

Military manpower--availability:
males age 15-49: 791,097 (1999 est.)
note: includes non-nationals

Military manpower--fit for military service:
males age 15-49: 425,248 (1999 est.)

Military manpower--reaching military age annually:
males: 23,358 (1999 est.)

Military expenditures--dollar figure: $2.118 billion (1999)

Military expenditures--percent of GDP: 5% (1999)

Transnational Issues

Disputes--international: location and status of boundary with
Saudi Arabia is not final, de facto boundary reflects 1974
agreement; no defined boundary with most of Oman, but Administrative
Line in far north; claims two islands in the Persian Gulf occupied
by Iran: Lesser Tunb (called Tunb as Sughra in Arabic by UAE and
Jazireh-ye Tonb-e Kuchek in Persian by Iran) and Greater Tunb
(called Tunb al Kubra in Arabic by UAE and Jazireh-ye Tonb-e Bozorg
in Persian by Iran); claims island in the Persian Gulf jointly
administered with Iran (called Abu Musa in Arabic by UAE and
Jazireh-ye Abu Musa in Persian by Iran)--over which Iran has taken
steps to exert unilateral control since 1992, including access
restrictions and a military build-up on the island; the UAE has
garnered significant diplomatic support in the region in protesting
these Iranian actions

Illicit drugs: growing role as heroin transshipment and
money-laundering center due to its proximity to southwest Asian
producing countries and the bustling free trade zone in Dubai

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@United Kingdom
--------------

Introduction

Background: Britain, the dominant industrial and maritime power
of the nineteenth century, played a leading role in developing
parliamentary democracy and in advancing literature and science. The
British Empire covered approximately one-fourth of the earth's
surface at its zenith. In the first half of the twentieth century
its strength was seriously depleted by two world wars. Since the end
of World War II, the British Empire has been dismantled, and Britain
has rebuilt itself into a prosperous, modern European nation with
significant international