Qatar’s Global Activism: Pursuing Ambition in the Midst of Domestic and Regional Transitions

Abstract

Over the past decade, Qatar’s presence on the global and regional stages has increased immensely, driven, in large part, by a growing sense of ambition among the country’s ruling elites. Indicators of ambition are most evident in three crucial sets of Qatari foreign policies: (1) diplomatic mediation, (2) social and financial development, and (3) partisanship in the Arab Spring revolts. These policies, which can be thought of as a form of “global activism,” have been influenced by the intersection of several sets of factors, organized in this chapter following levels of analysis logic. First, at regional/sub-systemic levels, Qatar has had to pursue its policies within the Middle East and Gulf regional orders that provided the opportunities for it to pursue an activist foreign policy that would fulfill its ambitions. Second, at the state level, Qatari decision makers have had to contend with the constraints imposed, and possibilities generated, by strongly held societal values, the leadership’s personal vision, and availability of hydrocarbon rents which facilitated global activism and activated these ambitions. Qatar’s ambitions, and the foreign policy strategies to achieve them, have been “caught in transitions” which emanated (and remain so) from shifting intra-Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) relations and the Arab Spring, as well as a society in the midst of demographic and ideational transformations.

I would like to thank Hend Al-Sulaiti and Tamadher Al-Malek for comments on an earlier draft.