“How far has the state of Qatar been impacted by the events the Arab region has experienced since late 2010”

Abstract

A state of political instability has prevailed in the Arab region since late 2010, represented by the outbreak of protests against the ruling regimes and demands for political and economic reforms, the spreading of armed violence, and the falling of the ruling regimes in several countries such as Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Yemen. The reasons for this instability are attributed to internal and external factors.

This research deals with the situation of the State of Qatar under the political instability in its regional environment. Although Qatar is a non-democratic state and, therefore, vulnerable to the emergence of opposition movements, it has maintained its stability and played an influential regional role through its contribution to overthrowing several ruling regimes and supporting other regimes.

The research also reviews the factors that helped the State of Qatar to maintain its stability (factors that prevented any internal disturbances or external interference). These factors are divided into internal factors, which are: the economic prosperity, the small size of the state, the small number of the population, the ethnic and religious homogeneity among the citizens, and the absence of strong opposition to the ruling regime. In addition, there are external factors, namely the alliance with the United States of America, the strong relations with the major European powers, the non–hostile foreign policy before 2010, the functional role it played at the regional level after 2010 in the framework of the implementation of the project of the United States of America and its European allies aimed at rearranging the Middle East region, the distinguished place in the global energy markets (Qatar is considered as the largest exporter of Liquefied gas in the world) and the establishment of relations with “Israel”.