Gulf Crises

Rory Miller

Description

The blockade of Qatar, which was launched in June 2017, has not only had important long-term implications for life in Qatar. It has also cast a giant shadow over future relations between Gulf neighbors and has impacted on dynamics across the wider international community. In this volume, 15 Doha-based scholars and experts offer insider accounts of the ways the blockade has influenced Qatar's economy, politics and society, how it has impacted on regional and international diplomatic, security and strategic relations, and how it has been covered in traditional and social media outlets. These reader-friendly contributions are complemented by a series of photographs that provide an illuminating visual record of events. The result is an unmatched chronicle of the dynamics of the blockade in its first year that will appeal to experts and general readers alike.

Sujets

• Qatar

Informations

• Publié par: Hamad Bin Khalifa University Press
• Date de parution: 22 décembre 2018
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9789927151514
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

The Gulf Crisis: The View from Qatar


Abbreviations
AFP Agence France-Presse
AP Associated Press
ASEAN Association of Southeast Asian Nations
CAABU Council for Arab-British Understanding
CIRS Center for International and Regional Studies
DICID Doha International Center for Interfaith Dialogue
EU European Union
FAO Food and Agriculture Organization
FPPMS Forum for Promoting Peace in Muslim Societies
GCC Gulf Cooperation Council
GCCIA GCC Interconnection Authority
GECF Gas Exporting Countries Forum
GEM Global Entrepreneurship Monitor
HBKU Hamad Bin Khalifa University
ILO International Labour Organization
ISIS Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant
IUMS International Union of Muslim Scholars
KISR Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research
LNG Liquefied Natural Gas
MEC Ministry of Economy and Commerce
MENA Middle East and North Africa
MME Ministry of Municipality and Environment
MOI Ministry of Interior
NGO Non-Governmental Organization
NIAG National Information Assurance Glossary
OBG Oxford Business Group
OPEC Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries
PETA Power Exchange and Trade Agreement
QBIC Qatar Business Incubation Center
QCRI Qatar Computing Research Institute
QDB Qatar Development Bank
QF Qatar Foundation
QIA Qatar Investment Authority
QNA Qatar News Agency
QNB Qatar National Bank
QNRF Qatar National Research Fund
QNV Qatar National Vision 2030
QP Qatar Petroleum
SME Small and Medium Enterprise
UAE United Arab Emirates
VAT Value-Added Tax
VPN Virtual Private Network
WEF World Economic Forum
WISE World Innovation Summit for Education


Introduction:
The Gulf Crisis: The View from Qatar
Rory Miller, Georgetown University in Qatar
On a Monday morning in early June 2017, without any specific forewarning, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Bahrain abruptly cut off diplomatic ties, closed their borders and airspace, and suspended all flights to and from Qatar. This move by three of Qatar’s closest economic and security partners was backed up by Egypt and a group of smaller states. In Doha, initial concerns revolved around the availability of fresh food, which before the crisis had been supplied to the country’ s stores by road from Saudi Arabia. There was also a sudden drop in the value of the stock market and heightened concerns over the ambitious plans for the FIFA football World Cup scheduled to take place in Qatar in 2022 – the first time an Arab or Muslim nation will host the world’s biggest sporting event.
The economy and financial sector were subsequently stabilized at considerable expense, new domestic and overseas sources of supply were established, the building of roads, railways and stadia continued, and daily life returned to normal for most. What has taken longer to come to terms with is the realization that some of Qatar’s closest neighbors, who share intricate and complex family and business ties, as well as a common language, religion and history, had chosen to break ties the way they did in the summer of 2017.
Throughout the blockade, the Qatari government has adopted a consistent position in response to the claims made against it. It has categorically rejected the accusation that it supports terrorism and has defended relations with Iran, Islamists and others in terms of its independent foreign policy and long-time commitment to dialogue . To counter such claims further, it has also highlighted Qatar’s status as home to two of America’s most important overseas military bases, which play a key role in the US-led air war against Islamic State in Syria and Iraq. At the same time, the government has repeatedly offered to engage with the blockading countries in order to find a solution acceptable to all parties. “We are willing to sit and talk,” explained Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani in an interview with CNN early in the crisis, though he made clear “that attempts to impose policies are out of the question.”
A year on, this remains the position of the Qatari government. One argument in particular has been very effective in influencing international opinion: that Qatar is the victim of a direct assault on its national sovereignty by a coalition of much larger powers, whose actions have undermined security in the Arab Gulf, a region that before the blockade was an oasis of stability in the wider Arab world. In these terms, the crisis has not only had important long-term implications for life in Qatar. It has also cast a giant shadow over future relations between Gulf neighbors under the auspices of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), which has been undermined by events.
Although a far from perfect institution, for four decades until the blockade the GCC had contributed to regional economic and security cooperation and had fostered prosperity, development and mutual understanding. Now the GCC’s future is uncertain at a time of grave insecurity and crisis in Yemen, Syria and across the wider region. This is particularly problematic as the blockade has also greatly impacted on the security architecture and alliance system between Washington and its key local allies in one of the world’s most important regions.
Domestically, early reactions to the blockade among the country’s 2.5 million inhabitants – citizens and foreign residents alike – were of surprise verging on disbelief. There was particular shock that the launch of the blockade was timed to coincide with the first full week of Ramadan, usually a peaceful time in the Muslim world. An even bigger shock since then has been the extreme hostility expressed toward Qatar and its leadership by government officials and the media in blockading countries. This has resulted in a sort of “social trauma” that will take a long time to overcome, but it has also fostered solidarity among citizens and the large expatriate community.
Hamad Bin Khalifa University, a public research university founded in 2010 by Qatar Foundation, Qatar’s oldest and most important civil society actor, commissioned this volume in recognition of the significant impact that the blockade has had on the domestic, regional and international levels. I would like to thank HBKU President Dr. Ahmad M. Hasnah and project director Marya Al-Dafa for their support in this endeavor. I would also like to thank Rima Ismail of HBKU Press for overseeing the book’s publication. I offer special thanks to Rodolphe Boughaba, who had the original idea for this volume and who has been hugely supportive and helpful in seeing it to fruition over subsequent months.
All the chapter contributors are Doha-based scholars and experts working at the various universities and research institutions hosted in Qatar under the auspices of Qatar Foundation. I would like to thank my colleagues at Georgetown University in Qatar, Northwestern University in Qatar, Texas A&M University at Qatar, University College London (UCL) Qatar, and Hamad Bin Khalifa University for their enthusiastic support for this project and for the range and depth of expertise that they have brought to these pages. They are social and political scientists, engineers and economists, experts on security and diplomacy, scholars of Islam and linguistics, and authorities on culture and the arts. Their combined local knowledge and their cutting-edge research are showcased here in a series of policy-oriented analysis pieces that address a wide range of topics and issues in a reader-friendly style that is easily accessible to a general audience.
The 15 chapters in this volume are divided into three sections. The first section offers insider accounts of the ways the crisis has influenced Qatar’s economy, politics and society. The second frames the crisis in its important international context. The third looks at the ways the crisis has been covered in traditional and social media outlets and how the various parties to the conflict and their supporters have used the media to promote their own positions.
Section one begins with a study of the impact of the crisis on Qatar’s globally significant cultural and creative industries, which have become an important vehicle for the country’s branding, global visibility and relevance over the last decade and a half. Here Karen Exell shows how, at the outset of the crisis, there was international consensus around the view that hostilities would be wholly detrimental to Qatar’s cultural and artistic life. Though the blockade has had some challenging resource impacts and has led to the reduction of regional cultural interactions, she shows how Qatar has adapted its cultural strategies to deal with the new environment.
The following two chapters by Tareq Al-Ansari and M. Evren Tok argue that the post-embargo era is a potential turning point, respectively, for food security and entrepreneurial endeavors in Qatar. Al-Ansari notes that the debate on food security inside Qatar long predated the blockade. The importance of ensuring the security and sustainability of food, as well as energy and water, increasingly occupies the thinking of decision-makers in sovereign states across the globe, and is an especially pressing matter in countries such as Qatar that face a scarcity of water and severe climate patterns. That said, as Al-Ansari shows, the blockade has played an important role in fostering further consensus over the urgency of accelerating plans that prioritize increased domestic food production within a sustainable development framework.
M. Evren Tok makes a similar point in his chapter on the impact of the blockade on Qatar’s entrepreneurial sector. As in the case of food security, the development of an entrepreneurial class has long been a strategic priority for Qatar, is a target of its 2030 National Vision, and is central to