1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910797321603321

Autore

Kamrava Mehran

Titolo

Qatar : Small State, Big Politics / / Mehran Kamrava

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Ithaca, NY : , : Cornell University Press, , [2015]

©2015

ISBN

0-8014-5430-1

0-8014-5431-X

Edizione

[With a New Preface]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (240 p.)

Disciplina

953.63

Soggetti

Politics and government

Diplomatic relations

Qatar

Qatar Foreign relations

Qatar Politics and government

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Originally published: 2013.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references (pages 203-217) and index.

Nota di contenuto

Front matter -- Contents -- Preface to the Paperback Edition -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- 1. Setting the Stage -- 2. The Subtle Powers of a Small State -- 3. Foreign Policy and Power Projection -- 4. The Stability of Royal Autocracy -- 5. State Capacity and High Modernism -- 6. Qatar's Moment in History -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index

Sommario/riassunto

The Persian Gulf state of Qatar has fewer than 2 million inhabitants, virtually no potable water, and has been an independent nation only since 1971. Yet its enormous oil and gas wealth has permitted the ruling al Thani family to exert a disproportionately large influence on regional and even international politics. Qatar is, as Mehran Kamrava explains in this knowledgeable and incisive account of the emirate, a "tiny giant": although severely lacking in most measures of state power, it is highly influential in diplomatic, cultural, and economic spheres. Kamrava presents Qatar as an experimental country, building a new society while exerting what he calls "subtle power." It is both the headquarters of the global media network Al Jazeera and the site of the U.S. Central Command's Forward Headquarters and the Combined Air



Operations Center. Qatar has been a major player during the European financial crisis, it has become a showplace for renowned architects, several U.S. universities have established campuses there, and it will host the FIFA World Cup in 2022. Qatar's effective use of its subtle power, Kamrava argues, challenges how we understand the role of small states in the global system. Given the Gulf state's outsized influence on regional and international affairs, this book is a critical and timely account of contemporary Qatari politics and society.