National Role Conceptions and Divergent Behaviours in a Similar Structure: Comparative Role Theory Analysis of Qatar and the United Arab Emirates

Qatar and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) share historical, political, cultural and structural similarities. However, they have adopted divergent and often conflicting foreign policies towards Middle Eastern crises and civil wars since the Arab uprisings began in 2011.

With this book, Yusuf Bera Topaloğlu explores why these two non-democratic, small-sized, neighbouring Gulf monarchies, constrained by similar structural factors, pursued divergent and conflicting foreign policies in the civil wars of Yemen, Libya and Syria from 2011, the onset of the Arab uprisings, to 2021, the Al-Ula Agreement. Using role theory, Topaloğlu argues that differing national role conceptions, shaped by each country’s unique socialisation experiences, drove their conflicting actions.

National Role Conceptions and Divergent Behaviours in a Similar Structure speaks to contemporary events in the international relations of the Middle East, especially the post-2011 regional reverberation. It will be of great interest to students and scholars of International Relations, Middle East and Gulf Studies, and to those who employ the role concept in foreign policy analysis.

Yusuf Bera Topaloğlu is an assistant professor at the National Defence University, Türkiye.