Qatar: Energy abundance and small powers

Abstract

The chapter will examine Qatar's strategic thinking and power projection through its journey of combining small statehood and abundant energy sources. This comprehensive approach combines Qatar's foreign policy making and energy strategies and discusses the re-materialisation of natural sources in Qatar. The central focus is Qatar's outstanding success as a Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) exporter. The study examines the strategies and challenges behind it to discover the factors that underpin Qatar's influence and regional power as a small state. In this regard, the nexus of sustainable wealth and political consolidation highlights the interrelations of external, domestic, economic, cultural, and energy-oriented policies. Qatar has employed multiple methods to monetise its natural sources and utilise them to amplify political autonomy. Notably, the role of LNG in Qatar's policy making provides essential economic welfare for policymaking and provides a space for more independent strategies. The chapter depictures Qatar's journey to become a tiny energy giant as a remarkable example of monetising natural sources and autonomous policymaking, despite the regional exclusion of 2017.