Qatar's growing reputation as international conciliatory is timely for the reclamation of world affairs
Doha's 2024 hosting of Israeli~Palestinian negotiations is proving Qatar's influential poise amongst grand battles for cultural hierarchy
Executive Summary: Qatar has emerged as a significant player in international diplomacy, highlighted by its hosting of high-profile negotiations like those between Israel and the Palestinians. Positioned as a mediator in global conflicts, Qatar balances its traditional Sunni Arab Bedouin heritage with modern influences, including a pragmatic approach to Shariah law and a welcoming environment for diverse cultures. Despite controversies and regional rivalries with Saudi Arabia and the UAE, Qatar leverages its wealth from natural resources, strategic investments, and cultural initiatives like art and sports to enhance its global influence and stability, showcasing a unique blend of tradition and modernity in the Middle East.
Navigating Culture and Diplomacy: Qatar's Strategic Position
Qatar’s growing station as international conciliatory is timely for the reclamation of world affairs. Doha's 2024 hosting of Israeli~Palestinian negotiations is proving Qatar's influential poise amongst grand battles for cultural hierarchy. The State of Qatar sustains its position as the preferred interlocutor for disgruntled nations. In the era of great state competition, Qatar's power is mighty in influence. The Qatari’s bold posture is a credit unto itself but comes with dangerous liaisons.
Ethnically, the Qatari are Arab Bedouins who are Sunnis influenced by Salafism. Thus Shariah is the basis of law. Qataris speak Gulf Arabic and the Queen's English, with a minor in British mentality from its tenure as a former protectorate. Qatar upholds endemic cultural codes of conduct while affording Western leniencies. As a result, Doha transformed itself as a regional meeting space for governments and organizations.
The common denominator in the Islamic cloth between Sunni and Shia is the alignment that Muhammad, not Jesus Christ, was the last Prophet of Allah. The two denominations differ in the lineage thereafter and vary on the Hadith. Collectively, inherent Qur’anic respect for the peoples of the Bible and Qatari cultural values create a mostly accommodating space for Muslim, Jewish, and Christian nations.
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is the bigger fish in the Arabian Gulf. But the Saudis come with social baggage. Scandalously, personal testimonials of foreign Muslims making Hijra to Mecca reported their wives being assaulted and harassed. Some Muslims complain Saudi social and marriage customs, arguably supported by the Hadith, are too taboo for acceptance. On the Islamic spectrum, liberal Muslims find the Saudis simply too culturally restrictive.
From a democratic viewpoint, the Turkish Republic's founder Kemal Mustafa Ataürk proved coalescence of Islam and democracy. To orthodox Muslims, NATO Member Turkey is too Western in ideology and governance. Contemptuously, a contingent of Muslims believe Mustafa Atatürk sold Islam's hegemony to the West in 1923. These same brethren pressure the Turkish government by implying fitnah. This cultural friction leaves Turkey disadvantaged at mediating extreme political discord involving certain Muslim nations and organizations.
The global stability index eliminates several Muslim nations from negotiating peace between warring sovereigns and political factions. The Arab Spring destabilized Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, and Syria. Iraq ebbs and flows with insurgencies and terrorism bubbles. Pakistan rides a rollercoaster of economic and political struggles. Iran is a closed nation. The Taliban focuses on Afghani and Central Asian affairs. A close runner-up to Qatar, and for that matter Bahrain, is Malaysia; however, the government is recovering from decades of political instability.
A major player in the Gulf are the seven sheikdoms comprising the Trucial States. For 2023, the United Arab Emirates hosted the United Nations COP28 Climate Change Conference. In 2024 the Emirates held the World Government Summit and soon the first jet suit competition. However, the UAE's fantastical tourism enticements paint Dubai and Abu Dhabi a shade of party-town in an otherwise theocratic region.
The delineation between public and private life, culturally valued amongst Muslim societies, is most distinct in Qatar. The implementation of Shariah makes it a nation religiously comfortable to most countries listed above to include <insert your qualifier here> organizations like Taliban and U.S. designated terrorist Hamas. Dually, the Qatari’s cerebral nature meshes with the Sufi influenced Turkish and Pakistani mentalities.
Muslims are held to a mixture of Shariah and local law, although not all penalties are implemented. Hijab is not required. Publicly, Sheikha Moza bint Nasser Al-Missned emphasizes fashion forward hijab for Muslim women. Doha became the first MENA nation to host the Web Summit with Connecticut native CEO Katherine Maher showcasing female owned start-ups.
Despite Qatar's recognition of Western ideals, the mentality of Shariah permeates socially. Prior to boarding a Qantas flight out of Doha in 2020, thirteen Australian women were subjected to invasive gynecological examines. Authorities at Hamad International Airport were hunting the birth mother of a premature baby dumped in a restroom. The figurehead responsible was fired, however, the Salafi perspective shows.
This leaves a margin of comfortability for occidental minds. Qatar requests non-Muslim men and women dress modestly in public spaces to show respect. There are alcohol exemptions for non-Muslims in hotels and homes. While burkinis are required at public beaches there is no such restriction on hotel beaches.
Visitors will notice signs forbidding certain public behaviors with future prohibition slots. Qatari pragmatism knows man will create new annoyances. Public privacy rights are important and upheld. There are no physical police haranguing people but closed-circuit cameras surveil the public vigilantly.
It seems the Qatari believe the higher aim is stability for the sake of prosperity. Historically, the Qatari tribes defended their identity and sovereignty in war. Periodically, Qatar opted for treaties and agreements over war with Portuguese, Ottoman, and British imperial rule, respectively.
Clearly the Qatari see value in weighing options, which requires unburnt bridges. Hamas' office sits near U.S. Central Command's Al-Udeid's base. Qatar’s reputation received a black eye for supporting the Muslim Brotherhood during the Arab Uprising. Though, lucrative natural assets support the Qatari political backbone to weather such international backlash.
Qatar's business acumen seems a cultural inheritance. Once renowned for pearl farming and woven textiles, Qatar’s current wealth is extracted from liquid gas and oil. The royal Al Thani family oversees management of the riches through local investment in state salaries and welfare to protect its 330,000 endemic population. Doha's streamlined infrastructure, which is rather modest for Gulf oil money, adds to its political stability.
The Al Thani family budgets annually $1 billion in mostly modern art acquisitions. Historically, Islam forbids the depiction of people to prevent idol worshipping. So, classic Islamic art tends to be in the form of shapes, colors, textiles, structures, calligraphy, and poetry. In a measured manner, Qatar is attempting to bridge major cultural gaps through contemporary art and international sports.
From Elon Musk's X to France's Saint-Germaine football team, international investment strategically grows Qatari influence. The real entrepreneurial tour de force was Doha's win for the coveted 2022 FIFA sponsorship. Football's global popularity constructed new and flexible influence mediums for government and business interests.
The press surrounding the 2022 FIFA stadium’s construction documented indentured servitude in Qatar. The desolate working conditions of migrant laborers, from Kenya, Sierra Leone, the Philippines, and Bangladesh, contrasted starkly with the unfathomable opulence. The import of menial labor from impoverished Asian and African nations highlights cultural hierarchies in Qatari society.
The native Arab Bedouins, roughly 10%, live in a wealthier sphere parallel to the greater 2.69 million population. Qatari citizenship is a rarely granted gift. Western and Indian businesspeople constitute a temporary upper class. While immigrants from war-torn Syria and Iraq makeup a transient middle class.
Qatar is neither exception nor sole perpetrator of Arabian cultural legacies. There is an underlying social assumption that the Bedouins native to the land exist on a higher plane than migrants and immigrants. Even then, the realities of cultural hierarchies exist amongst Bedouin tribes within the Arabian Peninsula.
The upper echelons of Gulf society in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, UAE, Kuwait, and Bahrain are competitive. In an act of hierarchical rebellion, the Qatari voted against melding with the UAE in 1971. Rumor has it there was too much bickering for Qatar's tastes. In degrees, the tussle of cultural hierarchies plays out in geopolitics.
Notably, the demands of Saudi Arabia on the Qatari government to shut down Al-Jazeera during the GCC blockade (2017-2021). Qatar's steadfast influence, as a mechanism of global power, ties to successful international dissemination of information. Another thorn in Saudi Arabia’s side is the Turkish military base on Qatari soil. Moreover, in 2018 Saudi Arabia accused the Qatari royal family of funding Iranian forces and terrorist organizations in Iraq and Syria. This is factually true.
The pertinent contextual details of the falconer kidnapping case involved the Al Thani royal family sending nearly $1 billion in ransom for a Qatari Prince. In 2023 the U.S. via Qatar negotiated with Iran to swap prisoners and agreed to thaw frozen Iranian money tied up in South Korea. Curiously, in 2024 the U.S. ultimately refroze Iran's $6 billion which now sits in Qatari banks.
The UAE and Qatar joust over religious temperaments and regional position. Al-Jazeera once tweeted an idol worshipping jab at the Emirates. Then, Emirati football coaches called out Qatar for playing ineligible footballers at the Asian World Cup. UAE complained to the World Trade Organization over Qatar banning its products. At the UN, the Qatari government formally accused the UAE of racism.
Like Saudi Arabia, the UAE considers the Turkish base at Ar-Rayyan a regional imbalance to security. Actually, Qatar’s military bilateral agreements with Turkey reflect deeper Qatari financial investment in the Turkish economy. During the GCC blockade, Turkey mirrored this support by supplementing Qatar’s food supply.
Undoubtedly, Qatar is proving an apt force. As a result of the blockade’s impact on the food supply chain, the Qatar government developed self-reliance. Visitors to Doha will notice grocery stores stockpiled with food but limited by brand with the exception of imported water. Qatar learned to grow, produce, and rely on its own food.
Another method the government used to outmaneuver the GCC blockade was to maintain relationships. The Al Thani monarchy avoided political destabilization from the Arab Spring without militarization. In 2021, Qatar gave presence for the Taliban power transition while hosting Afghani refugees amidst the abrupt departure of U.S. and Allied forces.
In alleged conversation, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu referred to Qatar's support of Hamas as "problematic" and "you don't hear me thanking Qatar". In retort, Qatari Ministry of Foreign Affairs Mr. Majed Al Ansari tweeted via social media platform X, "...if validated, these remarks are irresponsible and destructive to the efforts to save innocent lives..." In one perspective, Hamas’ office in Doha enables communication with its nation-state backer, Iran.
Since 2023, the Qatari government facilitates hostage negotiations between Hamas and Israel. Mr. Majed al Ansari corrected his interviewer on the term peace by explaining Qatar is assisting with "trust building measures". Specific to avoid exaggeration, Qatar's government underscores that great leaps take several smaller steps before feasibly stabilizing conflict.
Qatar's immemorial cultural traits factor into its modern role of meditation. The Qatari government seems to accommodate ideologies and positions rather extensively. Perhaps Doha's model for niche conciliatory services might serve the Russo-Ukraine war. Qatar's rationality may innovatively navigate this Slavic battle of cultural hierarchies.
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