Qatar

In recent decades, Qatar, a small country in the Arabian Gulf, has managed to come out of its anonymity. The discovery and exploitation of oil and gas definitively changed the history of the emirate. If a century ago most of the population was dedicated to fishing or searching for pearls, today Qatar has become one of the countries with one of the highest per capita incomes in the world, stands out as a giant energetic and possesses powerful financial muscle. Despite its small size and small population, the Al Thani dynasty has managed to turn Qatar into a key player in the Middle East region thanks to a dynamic foreign policy based on the use of soft power: the implementation of the pan-Arab chain Al Jazeera, mediation in regional conflicts or sponsorship of reformist Islamist groups. The celebration of the 2022 World Cup is the culmination of this effort to place Qatar on the map of major international events. Ignacio Álvarez-Ossorio and Ignacio Gutiérrez de Terán, two renowned experts on the Middle East, offer us this documented study on the political, social and economic direction that this small state has taken since its independence in 1971.