The Qatar Crisis through the Lens of Foreign Policy Analysis

IIUM Law Journal, 2020

The coordinated blockade of the State of Qatar by some of its neighbours in June 2017 has raised questions on the sovereignty of the state and the extent to which coercion is allowed in international law. This article considers the reasons behind the blockade and the subsequent demands by Qatar’s neighbours. It evaluates the blockade of Qatar based on the twin principles of international law: the prohibition on the use of force and non-interference in the internal affairs of other nations. The article argues that the language of article 2 (4), read together with the purposes of the United Nations (UN), render any forcible attempt to coerce a sovereign state into surrendering its sovereignty illegal. The article also considers the debate on whether economic and political coercion amounts to force. It submits that the coordinated blockade and the subsequent “13 points” demands threaten Qatar’s sovereignty, because the blockade contravenes the purposes of the UN. The article also argue...

In 2017, Egypt, UAE, Bahrain, and Saudi Arabia cut off diplomatic ties with Qatar and imposed a blockade on the country. The four countries stated that Qatar was practicing policies in the Middle East that were challenging the internal security of these countries. Moreover, the four countries that were imposing the blockade presented 13 terms that Qatar was to abide by in order for the diplomatic ties to return and for the blocked to end. This blockade on Qatar became commonly labeled as the "Qatari Crisis". Qatar refused these terms and decided to find an alternative to the benefits it shared with these countries. On the other hand, Iran and Turkey found this situation as an opportunity to achieve new interests through strengthening their ties with Qatar. This paper explores the Qatari, Iranian, and Turkish stances regarding the Qatari crisis.

Modern Diplomacy , 2018

The Gulf crisis, which has escalated into a full-blown diplomatic and economic blockade on Qatar by Saudi Arabia, The United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain, Egypt and their allies, is first and foremost the product of smoldering tensions between the parties, which have arisen from pronounced differences in Qatari and Saudi Arabian economic and foreign policy at a time of social, economic, and political upheaval that is shaping the future of the Middle East.

Revista Española de Ciencia Política, 2021

The aim of this article is to examine how the process of foreign policy decision-making affects the conduct of states in the international system and how states respond to external threats according to internal factors, notably elite threat perceptions and the capacity of institutions to mobilize power. Despite its small size and population, Qatar has achieved enormous regional projection in the last decades. Our hypothesis is that the Arab Spring forced Qatar and the rest of the monarchies in the Gulf to restructure their foreign policies. The mediator-integrator role that Doha had played till then gave way to a more active, independent role in which the tools of hard power gradually replaced those of previous soft power. These changes aggravated tensions with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates which, in 2017, decided to impose a blockade on Qatar.

Middle East Policy

2017

Digest of Middle East Studies, 2019

ORSAM, 2018