Sultan al-Qassemi makes a compelling case in his "Gulf Cities Emerge as New Centers of Arab World" for the Arab Gulf cities of Dubai, Doha and Abu Dhabi as the new commercial, cultural, educational, media and diplomatic centers of the Arab world. He asserts that the traditional Arab metropolises of Beirut, Cairo, Damascus and Baghdad are fading away as centers of creativity. 

But in his "Arab Cities Have a Long Way to Go Before Leading Arab World," Abbas al-Lawati seems to disagree with this proposition. He maintains that while Gulf cities have succeeded to move beyond the status of “cities of salt,” they cannot rise to become regional centers of excellence based on the achievements of foreign talents. 

Cities go through ups and down. They live in glory, but often wane and sometimes completely vanish. New cities come along as new centers of attractions to produce symbols and values and act as trend-setters. 

Arab cities are no exception. Cairo, Beirut, Baghdad and Damascus are yesterday’s cities whereas Dubai, Doha and Abu Dhabi (DDAD) are today’s and tomorrow’s centers. Cairo was the de facto political capital of the Arab world during Nasserism and the Arab nationalism of the 1950s and 1960s. The Cairo of 2013 is in near shambles and cannot function as a center for anything except probably for the 3-year-old Arab Spring which is going nowhere. Doha is now playing the role of the de facto diplomatic capital of the Arab world.