Selling perfume is about dreams. For fantasies of sex and glamour, spritz Tom Ford. For understated chic, use Armani. So what are we to make of the small bottle of perfume in an aquamarine leather box, soberly displayed on the shelves of Saks Fifth Avenue in Dubai? There’s a message in this bottle, and the clue is in its name, written in lush Arabic script: Mukhalat al-Sheika Lubna, which translates roughly as "Mix of Sheika Lubna." The name Sheika Lubna may not mean much in the West, but in the United Arab Emirates, it's synonymous with big money. Sheika Lubna al-Qasimi is a fast-talking, media-friendly 50-year-old princess who, as foreign trade minister of the U.A.E., is leading the most aggressive economic and social revolution in the region. She has helped turn the emirates, awash in oil money, into an Arab version of Las Vegas, all upscale resorts and over-the-top attractions. And she has helped direct some of its cash toward the West, through investments in Western companies, many of them struggling because of the sagging U.S. economy. While Sheika Lubna may not control the U.A.E.'s purse strings—investments are determined by the managers of the Dubai and Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth funds—she is the face of the emirates for the West, the most prominent emissary other than Sheik Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, the U.A.E.'s prime minister and ruler of Dubai. Thanks largely to Sheika Lubna, the U.A.E. has become the biggest recipient of foreign investment in the Middle East. (View an interactive feature showing Mideast investments in U.S. companies.)

But with economic expansion has come friction. In 2006, DP World, a business backed by the government of Dubai, was forced to sell the U.S. port-management operations it had acquired through the purchase of a British company. A political firestorm had erupted in the U.S. over fears that a Middle Eastern firm’s involvement in running port facilities could jeopardize national security. More recently, there has been dark talk that the U.A.E.'s ports are being used by enemies of the U.S., including Iran.

The sheika's role is to deflect criticism while keeping the cash rolling in. She has the right qualifications. She is the first Arab woman to create a multimillion-dollar e-commerce company in a region where women have traditionally played only bit roles in business. She's also the first woman to become the economic minister of an oil-rich nation and the only cabinet minister anywhere to have her own perfume. Think Carly Fiorina meets Condoleezza Rice, with a touch of Oprah Winfrey.

All of Sheika Lubna's firsts make it easy to forget that the U.A.E. is a nation very much in transition. The sheika's job is to represent that shift while at the same time making it look as effortless as possible.

Walking out of the elevator to visit Sheika Lubna's office in downtown Abu Dhabi, I almost bump into her. "You're early," she says, holding out a firm hand. Many Arab women, even thoroughly modern ones, dislike publicly touching men to whom they are not related. Not Sheika Lubna. Over sweet coffee and fruit juice, she makes small talk, showing off photographs of herself with Bill Clinton, Bill Gates, Colin Powell, and Sheik Mohammed of Dubai. She lists her recent and upcoming engagements in Brussels, London, Paris, and Riyadh. She sees it as part of her job to be "an Arab capable of communicating across cultures." She says, "I support both sides. I argue for America in the U.A.E. and for the U.A.E. in America."

Indeed, Sheika Lubna personifies everything that the U.A.E. and much of modern Arabia aspires to be. To outsiders, the U.A.E. is all bling, a desert full of five-star hotels, skyscrapers, ski domes, million-dollar horse races, and mile-long malls where Russians queue to buy Fendi fur coats despite the 100-degree heat. It’s certainly gaudy. But beyond the razzle-dazzle is a steely sociopolitical mission.