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Beyond liberal peace? Qatar’s ’hybrid’ mediation and the politics of peacemaking in Afghanistan
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Date
2026-01-01
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Abstract
This article examines the State of Qatar’s distinctive diplomatic strategy as a non-Western mediator in the protracted Afghan conflict, offering a structural critique of the traditional liberal peacebuilding model. Guided by foreign policy role theory, the study operationalises the concept of ‘hybrid mediation’ to demonstrate how Qatar analytically bridges the non-threatening ideational posture of a small state with the infrastructural capacity typically reserved for great powers. Process-tracing the Doha negotiations, the empirical analysis reveals a profound intrarole conflict between Qatar’s projected identity as an impartial broker and the geopolitical imperatives of facilitating a rapid United States military exit. Ultimately, while Qatar’s hybrid approach achieved unprecedented diplomatic success in brokering the historic 2020 U.S.-Taliban withdrawal agreement to secure a negative peace, its structural marginalisation of the Afghan Republic underscores the limitations of transactional diplomacy in generating a sustainable positive peace.