Download: Qatar set to take on the world
Qatar set to take on the world
Qatar’s population of 1.95 million is the fastest-growing in the world, largely due to immigration. The country has the highest GDP per capita in the world at $102,000 and its GDP is growing at a faster rate than any other country’s. The vast majority of the country’s wealth – its GDP is $181.7bn – comes from its oil and gas reserves. It has an estimated 25bn barrels of oil and more than 25tn cubic metres of gas. Yet Qatar is tiny: at 11,586 sq km, most of which is desert, it is about seven times the size of Greater London.
A generation ago Qatar – whose people are the world’s wealthiest by virtue of its oil and natural gas reserves – barely registered on the global radar. It is a former British protectorate ruled by the al-Thani family since the 19th century; its present emir, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, seized power in 1995 from his father in a bloodless palace coup. Today it is difficult to avoid its money and influence.
While Qatar was a founding member of the Gulf Co-operation Council in 1981, which guarantees its sovereignty, its foreign policy has long been focused on forging friendships and alliances to guarantee its independence and security, not least through its hosting of US Central Command since 2002.
“You only have to look at Qatar’s location on the map to see that it is in a rather heavy neighbourhood,” says Jane Kinninmont, a Gulf expert at the Chatham House thinktank.
“Fifteen years ago no one had really heard of Qatar,” says Kinninmont. “Now we know about it not only because of its trophy investments in places like London but because of its foreign policies. It is very brand-conscious and in part that is because it seeks to define and brand itself through what it is involved in.”
Speaking three years ago, Qatar’s prime minister insisted: “Our sources of power are our belief in God, our self-confidence and the emir’s clear perception, in which there is no competition with anyone. We want to compete with no one. Our country is small and I repeat this a hundred times.”
Then small Qatar might well discover, as others have before, that the realities of hard power trump the expensive and subtle business of soft power – laser light shows and gleaming towers included.
