In this paper, I look at discourses of culture, locality, and ecology in the urban schemes of Gulf cities such as Abu Dhabi and Dubai. Along with China the contemporary Arab Gulf is undergoing an urbanization of massive proportions. Possessing approximately 40 percent of the world's proven oil reserves, the six countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council were devoting more than $2 trillion to construction projects before the financial crisis of 2008 [which did indeed slow construction, especially in Dubai, the economy most affected by the crisis]. Like China, architects view the Gulf, whose member states are governed by tiny elites disposing of immense wealth and nearly nonexistent labor and environmental regulation, as a liberating place in which to work. No Gulf country has been as aggressive in advancing top-down, large-scale urbanism as the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The rhetoric of local government officials, architects, and the media employs various discourses of progress and architectural radicalism to justify such projects. I analyze the discursive intersections between officials, experts, and local everyday actors as cities in the Gulf engage in urban entrepreneurialism or global "place wars."