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QATAR’S SIZE AND ENTERPRISE: A GEOPOLITICAL STUDY
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2026-06
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Abdulrahman Al Thani_OGS Approved Dissertation.pdf
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Abstract
This dissertation examines the relationship between size and role in Qatar's case, taking geopolitics as both its starting point and its analytical methodology. The study is organized around four chapters. The first provides the historical foundation, tracing the balancing strategies pursued by Qatar's founding fathers -Sheikh Mohammed bin Thani, Sheikh Jassim bin Mohammed, and Sheikh Abdullah bin Jassim- in their relations with the Ottoman and British Empires. Their cultivation of cautious allegiance, strategic autonomy, and tactical flexibility established an enduring diplomatic tradition. The three chapters that follow are each built around a geopolitical concept applied as an interpretive tool. The second chapter examines Qatar's position in the Gulf through the lens of the lintel state, arguing that Qatar serves as both a buffer between Saudi Arabia and Iran and an active agent of regional stability. The third chapter situates Qatar within the Middle East shatterbelt and argues that it functions as a linchpin state, using mediation and diplomatic leapfrogging to secure itself and become an indispensable actor for regional and global powers. The fourth and final chapter examines Qatar as a gateway state: a small state whose strategic position and economic niche allow it to connect larger geopolitical spaces and shape global flows of people, goods, services, and norms. The chapter traces how Qatar has translated its dominant position in the liquefied natural gas market, its sovereign wealth fund, its media network, and its sports diplomacy into a foreign policy identity that shapes regional norms. The overarching conclusion is that Qatar has succeeded in rising above the constraints of its geography by recognizing the importance of geopolitics and investing accordingly.