Qatar Foreign Policy Towards the Middle East Essay Example for Free

Qatar Foreign Policy Towards the Middle East Essay Qatar is located in Arabian Peninsula in boarders with Saudi Arabia, with only 225,000 citizens in a population of 1. 7 million. Qatar follows a conservative religious ideology, Wahhabism. While some refer to Qatar as the â€Å" Second Wahhabi Emirate,† it is traditionally known as â€Å"the most boring place in the gulf† or â€Å"the country known for being unknown (Roberts, 2012). † However, Qatar emerged as a strong state actor with extended networks of alliances in the world. The mediator role that Doha plays today is crucial in the region, particularly after the Arab Spring (HRW, 2013). Indeed, Qatar supported the Arab Uprisings across the region in 2011. In addition, Qatar invested between $65 billion and $100 billion to the FIFA world cup that it will be hosting in 2022. The Emir founded a number of humanitarian projects in Sudan, South of Lebanon, Gaza and Asia. In this paper, I attempt to answer the question of what are the driving motives of Qatar’s foreign policy in the Middle East? And why, unlike its neighboring countries, Qatar’s leadership supported the Arab appraisals of 2011? Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Hamad Al Thani, stated, â€Å"we support those who demanded justice and dignity,† when asked about his country’s role in the Arab revolutions in an interview in 60 Minutes . In response, President Barak Obama thanked the Emir for promoting democracy in the Middle East (Al Thani, 2012). Ironically, Qatar is an absolute monarchy described as an â€Å" authoritarian regime† that is ranked 138th out of the 167 countries by Democracy Index 2011. In addition, the Freedom House lists Qatar as â€Å" not free† (freedom house), (Democracy Index, 2011). Therefore, Qatar’s lack of rule of law, freedom of speech and political rights contradict â€Å"the Emir’s efforts to promote democracy† and delegitimizes his political statements. In relevance to this hypocrisy, Qatar’s foreign policy in general and its support of democratic transitions in the Arab region in specific serves its ambitions to secure itself from threats, maintain its status quo of an independent state and take a leadership role in the region. Political Emancipation and the Saudi Threat: Al Thani family ruled Qatar for more than 150 years. Qatar attained its independence in 1971, when the British-mandate came to an end and after its refusal to join the United Arab Emirates federation. Since that date until the 1990s, Saudi Arabia acted as the de facto protector of Qatar. Consequently, the Emir took policy directions from Al Saud. However, this relationship witnessed a change in the early 1990s as tensions in bilateral relations between the two countries began to arise. After the invasion of Kuwait and Sadam’s threat to attack the Suadi kingdom, Saudi quickly reached out to western coalitions in aim of protection. As Suadi presented itself as weak and unable to defend itself, the Qataris began to doubt Saudi’s ability to protect the Qatari entity and decided to pursue a strong alliance with the US. Therefore, between 1990-1992, Qatar signed a military agreement with the United States to host its military base in Al-Odead. In response, Saudi worked to block Qatar’s pipeline exports of gas to United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Oman. As a result, tensions between the two countries intensified. Later, in 30 September 1992, Saudi attacked the Qatari boarders leaving three soldiers dead (2012). However, the clashes did not stop there. In1995, Shiekh Hamad Al Thani, the Crown Prince back then, seized power after a bloodless coup d’etat against his father. Of course, Saudi Arabia did not welcome the coup d’etat because of Hamad’s known strong motives to maintain his country’s autonomy. Instead, Saudi financially supported another coup against the current Emir. Then, Qatar detained a number of Saudi and Qatari citizens who cooperated with the Saudi government to bring the ousted prince back into power. These tensions led the Saudi-Qatar relations into a deep freeze until rapprochement happened in 2008 (2012). Since then, Shiekh Hamad Al Thani led the modernization process to create a brand name of Qatar. In its foreign policy, Qatar adopted diplomacy as a foreign policy tool that allows it to take on the mediator role in a number of regional disputes. In addition to its diplomatic activism and small size, the Qatari wealth that is invested in mediation efforts paves the way for Qatar to be a head in the political game today. A Theoretical approach on Qatar’s Mediation: The tribal nature of the Qatari society and the hierarchal system of the government lends the leadership absolute power to form the country’s economic-political agenda and foreign policy. The major two agents that determine the political strategies of Qatar’s foreign policy are its national security and its desire to establish a brand name for itself. Hence, the main key element of Qatar’s foreign policy is mediation, which is apparently is not a new political tool as the â€Å"early Al-Thanis were forced to become experts negotiators quickly in anarchic corner of the Middle East (Roberts). According to Jacob Bercovitch in his book, Studies in International Mediation, countries engage in mediation for various reasons that include â€Å"(a) a genuine desire to change the course of a long-standing conflict to promote peace, (b) a desire to gain access to major political leaders and open channels of communication, (c), a desire to spread one’s ideas and enhance standing and professional status, (d) the wish to preserve intact structure of which they are part, (e) viewing mediation as a way of extending and enhancing their own influence and gaining some value from the conflict (Roberts). Therefore, from this perspective, Qatar’s employs mediation for the enhancement of its professional status and the acquirement of power. From here, Qatar mediated a number of disputes in the region including the Hezbollah dispute with the Lebanese government, the rebellion disputes with the Northern Sudanese government and the Huothis dispute with the Yemeni government. Moreover, Participation in mediations between states is of great advantage to Qatar. Internationally, it promotes a peaceful image as a peacekeeping state in an attempt to gain worldwide respect (Roberts). Peterson argues in his work, Qatar and the World, â€Å"The fundamental advantage, however, is that it assures the legitimacy of the micro state. This in turn leads to the single most important factor: increased awareness of and legitimacy accruing to Qatar- in domestic and external terms- enhances the prospects of the states’ survival†(Roberts). Qatar neutral position and its small size makes non-threatening to other state to except negotiation with compare to Saudi which has interests in regional conflict, which leads political parties to refuse its negotiation, e. . Saudi support of the government in Yemen and rivalry with Hezbollah. On the other hand, Qatar established diplomatic relations with almost everyone. Qatar’s Foreign affairs minister, Shiekh Hamad bin Jasem Al Thani, in an interview on Al –Jazeera, was asked by Ahmed Manosur, Al Jazeera presenter, â€Å"I just want to understand one thing! In Qatar you have relations with the devils and the angels, with the Iranians and the Americans, with the Israelis and Hamas, he continued, how can we understand this policy? (Mansour, 2012). Today, Qatar unlike other state in the region, calls Tehran in the morning and Tel Aviv in the afternoon â€Å"(Roberts). It was the first state in the gulf to host trade office of Israel, established good relations with Hamas, opened communications with Hezbollah, the Emir of Qatar was the first to invite Ahmadinejad to attend the 28th Gulf Cooperation council summit in 2007. While other Arab states alienated Islamists, Qatar was in good terms with Arab oppositions, particularly Islamic groups. For example, Yusuf Al Qaradawi is an influential Islamic leader, resident of Qatar since 1960s is the main guest who taken the Qatari citizenship is Al Jazeera chief religious show. Also, other Arab political dissidents were welcomed and took Qatari citizenship such as Mohammed Hamed Al Hamari from Saudi Arabia who organized Youth Role in Change in the Arabic Gulf; young activists from across the gulf attended the conference (Al Qassemi, 2012). Al Jazeera as foreign Policy tool Part of â€Å"Brand Qatar† project, is to spread ideas and enhance Qatar’s status. The establishment of Al-Jazeera in 1996 came to serve that goal. Al Jazeera is an important tool of Qatar foreign policy, with its slogan the â€Å" The Opinion and the other Opinion† and the channel shameless criticisms to Arab leaders and programs on democracy and political rights. Al Jazeera soon gained the respect of Arab public compare to other media alternatives that are state sponsored (Khtib, 2013). The channel broadcasted the revolutions across the Arab spring countries – except the appraisals in Bahrain . The spread of revolutions were feared by Arab states, yet Qatar seemed to support the revolutions through Al Jazeera. That is said to be reason that inspired the youth in Egypt, Libya, Syria and Yemen to rebel against their governments and demand freedom and dignity. Nevertheless, The channel neutrality was under question, during the Egyptian elections, Al Jazeera hosted members of MB like Khirat Al Shater, and Moahhmed Mosri. Sultan Al Qassimi, a, wrote about Al Jazeera’s Arabic love ffaires with MB, he discussed some of his observations, that Muslim Brotherhood supports were given the chance to express their views on through the channel while critics towards Muslim Brotherhood were barely heard in the channel (Al Qassemi, 2012). Recently, Waddah Khanfar the director – general of Al Jazeera was replaced with Shiekh Ahmed bin Jasem Al Thani, who holds degree in petroleum (Al Qassemi, 2012). This suggests that Al Jazeea is becoming less free to represents Qatar’s government preferences and its support to Muslim brotherhood. Apparently, Qatar calculations towards the Arab spring were opposite to its neighbors who supported Mubarak regime. It saw an opportunity to ally itself with revolutions to promote for its image as â€Å"Pro- Arab public † and play regional role in Arab-Arab relations despite the policy risks its taking incase these revolutions were not successful. Through Qatar’s Money, Al-Jazeera, regional mediations and international pressure, Doha was successful in making the Arab Spring an opportunity so that it plays valuable role and take a leadership role in the region. Qatar in the Arab Spring: Qatar natural position had to be changed when it realized that change will topple the former leaders to stay at the head of the game head of Saudi, After Mubarak’s fall, Qatar supported Muslim brotherhood in Egypt. Shiekh Hamad Al Thani, the foreign minster of Qatar state that his country won’t allow Egypt to go bankrupt, Doha transferred five billion dollars to Egypt to meet its financial obligations. In addition to the financial support, Al Jazeera members’ Muslim brotherhoods are regularly interviewed to spread their influence. Middle Ease Scholar, Alain Gresh calls Al Jazeera the mouthpiece of Muslim brotherhood (Khatib, 2013). Furthermore, Rashid Al Ghanushi of Al Nahdha party of Tunisia, stated in an interview with Al Arab newspaper that Qatar is a major partner of the Arab spring revolutions hence it’s also a partner in next period of democratic transition and development since it offers development projects to support the economy of the Arab spring states (2012). Qatar had to intervene in Libya and Syria to sustain its leading regional position. It was the first country to lead the international action against Gaddafi. Qatar supplied the rebels with total US$2billion. On the other hand, Qatar involved in arming Syrian rebels like the Free Syrian Army. Also, it was successful in unifying the Syrian opposition. The importance of Qatar involvement in the latter is to counter Iranian influence by allying with opposition while Assad regime is backed by Iran (Khatib, 2013). In contrast to this, Al Jazeera was silent towards the uprisings in Bahrian. Qatar has been selective in backing uprisings there. The reason behind that, is Saudi Arabia influence that views the situation as â€Å"Shi’a uprising â€Å" and regional rivalry with Iran, hence any intervention from Qatar’s side in Bahraini issue would result tensions (Roberts, 2012). In conclusion, Qatar had different view towards the Arab Spring compare to its neighbors. Its objective to play a valuable role in the region, made Doha change its position as neutral state and take foreign policy risks. Although the question of weather Qatar made the right policy decisions or not remains unanswered yet. However, Doha succeeded in playing regional role a head of regional power like Saudi and influenced the Arab countries to take collective action towards Libya and Syria. In addition, Qatar foreign policy faces challenges; among these challenges is the reliance on money donations to support Post Arab Spring countries that would hinder progress in Qatari diplomacy. On the other hand, the lack of democracy and rule of law domestically puts Qatar legitimacy to promote for democracy under question. Moreover, making policy changes internally such as guarantee of political and civil rights to citizens hold parliamentary elections and protection freedom of speech will give Qatar legitimacy and enhance its image in international community.

The Reflection: A Song Essay -- Literary Analysis, Aphra Behn

The poem 'The Reflection: A Song' was written in 1684 by Aphra Behn and seems to feature around the theme of realisation and betrayal. Written by a woman, the poem's main character of a betrayed female has a subjective stance, which evokes a strong emotion of sympathy from the reader as it could represent a true life event. The structure of the poem is set out in seven stanzas, consisting eight lines. What is interesting about the structure is the use of iambic tetrameter with the first, third, fifth and seventh lines of each stanza and iambic trimeter with the second, fourth, sixth and eight lines. This gives the poem a lyrical rhythm as well as encouraging visual interest for the reader. Rhyme scheme follows quite a loose A, B, A, B pattern. The reason for the description of loose is that some lines end without true rhyme. For example, 'her fate' (l.2) then 'she sat' (l.4) does not follow the pattern which has been set out for most lines such as 'to bemoan' (l.1) and 'alone' (l.3). Furthermore, dialect may also interfere with pronunciation, especially with the end words of 'tongue' (l.6) and 'wrong' (l.8). This reoccurs later on with 'strove' (l.33) and 'love' (l.35) as well in other areas of the poem. However, seeming as this was composed in the 17th century, diction would have been different to that of the contemporary reader, meaning the form of the poem, in terms of reading aloud, may have had the correct rhyme intention. Internal rhyme is also seen with 'my' (l.18) and 'thy' (l.19) which also contributes to the lyrical style and creates a smooth rhythm when reading. As this poem follows along the theme of betrayal and love, devices such as repetition are used to emphasise this theme. Within stanza five, ana... ...escape. She does not try to portray the idea in a metaphoric sense, but instead uses the direct language to make the statement adamant. This close textual analysis has shown how the feeling of despair can be portrayed through a variety of devices. The fact that there is a prominent rhyme scheme makes the poem traditional, as well as the theme being about love. What may have been seen as controversial could be the fact that the poem was written by a woman, especially as this was written in the 17th century. Following on, as a female herself, Aphra Behn is able to create a believable female character by using real life concepts such as betrayal. Whether Behn experienced this emotion herself would require further reading, however the emotion within in the poem seems to be precise and may have been from a personal experience the writer incurred in her lifetime.

This Way to the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen

â€Å"It is that very hope that makes people go without a murmur to the gas chambers, keeps them from risking revolt, paralyses them into numb inactivity†¦ hope that breaks family ties, makes mothers renounce their children, or wives sell their bodies for bread, or husbands to kill. † (122) â€Å"This Way to the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen† by Tadeusz Borowski displays how survival and death have a close relationship. With an absence of morality Tedeusz becomes a key component to the executor’s effort. The overturn of values and an uncertain hope by the personal view of Tedeusz reflects on how the civilization as a whole is suffocated by Nazi control. It is essential to endure these issues in order to survive. The narrator Tedeusz slides into survival mode with a unique role in the camp, he witnesses and describes the complexity of survival and hope in the camp. He arrives at Auschwitz as a â€Å"political† prisoner when the policy on extermination changes, three weeks earlier â€Å"Aryans† stopped being sent to the gas chambers, with that he wedges himself in the middle of the hierarchy. With that, he does not live as a prisoner and does not endure the daily tasks as bad as most. He becomes one of the experienced, well-adjusted, completely institutionalized inmates. For him everything is a matter of sheer practicality, and people who refuse to cooperate with the necessary politics of camp life deserve not pity but contempt. The Canada men â€Å"carry [the babies] like chickens† (116), showing their surrender to the system of the Nazis. He is a victim collaborating in crime; immunized against the evil that surrounds him; able to find a fairly comfortable situation. His tone is one of moral indifference; he views the murdered people and the ones dying of starvation from a distance, without compassion, with scorn even. In â€Å"Auschwitz, Our Home,† one of the short stories in the collection, the narrator exclaims, â€Å"Never before in the history of mankind has hope been stronger than man, but never also has it done so much harm as it has in this war, in this concentration camp. We were never taught how to give up hope, and this is why today we perish in gas chambers. â€Å"(122) He is confronted by a world where the future is unknown. It plants an insightful thought of the working world. The writing portrays in such a brutally honest tone it forces us to confront the world and our understanding of human nature. In Auschwitz the odds are against survival what happens when we are confronted by a world where a future is not certain. We are asked to reaffirm our beliefs and the foundation for our beliefs. Does hope motivate us to action, or in essence of the text, does it paralyze our belief system and make us less likely to act for survival? Some characters that came off the trains showed yes some showed no. One character in particular bravely makes a decision right from the train. â€Å".. And over there is the gas chamber: communal death, disgusting and ugly. And over in the other direction is the concentration camp†¦ more hideous, more terrible than death†¦ I know, she says with a shade of proud contempt†¦ She walks off resolutely in the direction of the trucks. † This is a dignified act; she is unafraid to stand up for her values. On the contrary, a woman is numbed by the choice she must make, â€Å"She is young, healthy, good-looking, she wants to live. But the child runs after her, wailing loudly: ‘Mama, mama don’t leave me! ’† (43), she sacrifices her morals for a hope of survival with a tragic innate act. The novel also exhibits how hope gets in the way for survival. Every aspect of civilization is devalued so that everyone is under the same system created by the Nazis. Incomers remind the prisoners of their lost values and show a glimpse of the outside world, they are then treated with resentment and disgust. The Nazis and the prisoners feel better than the incomers and quickly reject them and their system of values in forms of anger. The Canada men â€Å"brutally tear suitcases from their hands, impatiently pull of their coats† (118). As a â€Å"woman reaches down quickly to pick up her handbag. A whip flies, the woman screams, stumbles, and falls† (115) the narrator says, â€Å"I don't know why, but I am furious, simply furious with these people-furious because I must be here because of them. I feel no pity. I am not sorry they're going to the gas chamber. † (116) the prisoners feel anger toward the incomers because â€Å"the easiest way to relieve your hate is to turn against someone weaker. † (116) Even the prisoners feel no sympathy for the incomers because the outside and inside worlds of the camp do not mix; only one world can exist. Since a civilization is based on pure values, these values must be united as one. â€Å"If the dead are wrong and the living are always right, everything is finally justified; but the story of Borowski’s life and that which he wrote about Auschwitz show that the dead are right, and not the living. † (26) To endure the derailed moral value in the camp, one must live in savagely, in each present moment and with faith to survive. By way of justification and structure Tedeusz and others learn that survival and death are in close association.

Young Goodman Brown Irony, Madness and Symbolism Free Essay Example, 1500 words

Another good example can be found on page 28 wherein the author mentioned that Goody Cloyse covered himself up as a pious and exemplary dame, who had taught him his catechism in youth, (Hawthorne 26) but is a witch, complete with a broomstick and evil magic spells. Hawthorne s irony makes him suggest, tongue-in-cheek, that her muttering is a prayer, doubtless (29). The supposedly holy minister and Good old Deacon Gookin (Hawthorne 61) is actually only pretending to show the image of holiness. The Puritans are referring to the English Protestants during the 16th and 17th century who are expected to practice strict religious discipline (Farlex Dictionary). In the short story, Hawthorne described the Puritan society as the grave, reputable, and pious people, these elders of the church, these chaste dames and dewy virgins (57) in bright colors of sin. Even the hymn sung at the satanic gathering is cloaked in the slow and mournful strain, such as the pious love, but joined to words which expressed all that our nature can conceive of sin, and darkly hinted at far more (Hawthorne 59). We will write a custom essay sample on Young Goodman Brown: Irony, Madness and Symbolism or any topic specifically for you Only $17.96 $11.86/page According to Hawthorne (17), a race of honest men and good Christians since the days of the martyrs are actually the close acquaintances of the devil. For instance, the public figures of New England, who Goodman Brown thinks are a people of prayer, and good works to boot, and abide no such wickedness (Hawthorne 19) are revealed to be sinners.