Qatar: Small State, Big Politics - Hardcover

Kamrava, Mehran

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0801452090 ISBN 13: 9780801452093

Publisher: Cornell University Press, 2013

Synopsis

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.

About this title

About the Author

Mehran Kamrava is Professor and Director of the Center for International and Regional Studies at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service in Qatar. He is the author of a number of books, including, most recently, Iran’s Intellectual Revolution and The Modern Middle East: A Political History since the First World War, 3rd edition. He is also the editor of The International Politics of the Persian Gulf, Innovation in Islam: Traditions and Contributions, The Political Economy of the Persian Gulf, and The Nuclear Question in the Middle East.

Review

"Kamrava’s work is one of the first full-scale investigations of the intersections of Qatar’s foreign and domestic policies. This book is an important read for those who want to understand more about a crucial, but relatively understudied, country, as well as for scholars in the fields of rentier theory, state building, and international relations."

(Jocelyn Sage Mitchell, Northwestern University in Qatar Democratization)

"Mehran Kamrava, a well-known expert on the middle East and the Persian Gulf, continues to contribute immensely to the intellectual life of Doha where he has been working since the establishment of Centre for International and Regional Studies at Georgetown University's School of Forgein Service in Qatar. Therefore, his book entitled Qatar: Small State, Big Politics came as no surprise and indeed is very much welcome."

(Erdem Tunçe Perceptions: Jounral of International Affairs)

About this edition

• Publisher: Cornell University Press
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 0801452090
• ISBN 13: 9780801452093
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 232