More: Qatar
The Qatar World Cup: Footballing for soft power
Former Qatari emir Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, the father of the Gulf state's current ruler, Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, learnt a lesson...
The 2022 World Cup: Qatar’s Make-or-Break Moment
The final run-up to the 2022 World Cup and the tournament's management is make-it-or-break-it time for Qatar.
Both will determine Qatar’s ultimate soft power benefit...
Public opinion surveys challenge the image Arab leaders like to project
Several recent public opinion surveys send a mixed message to autocratic reformers in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Qatar, which hosts this...
Qatar World Cup: An unintended boon for the UAE
Qatar's 2022 World Cup promises to benefit not only itself but also to provide an unintended economic, political, and religious soft power boon for...
Saudi-Egyptian World Cup bid could make Qatar’s experience look like a cakewalk
At first glance, a potential bid by Saudi Arabia and Egypt, two of the world's worst human rights violators, together with Greece, to host...
Qatar World Cup offers lessons for human rights struggles
It’s a good time, almost 12 years after the world soccer body, FIFA, awarded Qatar the 2022 World Cup hosting rights and five months...
Qatar’s pragmatic foreign policy and its global clout
Iran and the US resumed talks for the revival of the Iran Nuclear Deal 2015/Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), in Qatar, with mediation...
The World Cup and beyond: Thinking strategically about LGBT rights
When Egyptian football legend Mohammed Aboutreika came out swinging against homosexuality in late 2021, he touched a raw nerve across the Muslim world.
The tit-for-tat...
The India-Gulf Spat: Protagonists in glass houses
Qatar Airways CEO Akbar Al-Baqr, a man known for his pithy retorts, pretended to quiver in his pants. Hindu nationalists had called for a...
The 2022 World Cup: Is Qatar Putting its Best Foot Forward?
This is Qatar's year to put its best foot forward.
A major producer of natural gas, the tiny Gulf state is under the magnifying glass...