This book addresses critical topics and unanswered questions on the contemporary state of Qatar. Drawing together a unique combination of authors that have researched the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) in general, and the state of Qatar specifically, each author provides an in-depth empirical analysis of Qatar’s current social, political, and economic landscape against a historically informed backdrop. Cognizant of its rapid state of flux, the contributors collectively provide a comprehensive overview of the intersection of these respective areas, delving into the historical creation of Qatar as a state, its politics and systems of governance, its economic strata and reliance on natural resources, its society and national identity, its new and thriving sports culture, and, most topically, matters of diplomacy, the 2017 blockade, and its armed forces. Owing to the contributors’ invaluable firsthand experience and knowledge of Qatar, this book provides valuable insights into this nation, at once old and new, and its intertwined trajectories in its socio-political and economic positionality within the region. This book is an invaluable resource for students and scholars researching the Middle East generally, and the Gulf, specifically, with interests in topics such as politics and international relations, political economy and foreign policy, development, sources of social change, societal activism, popular culture, and the various elements of identity.

As the bearers of the next generation in one of the richest countries in the world, the social status of Qatari women is closely linked to their ability to have children. Women are expected to reflect the cultural and religious values attached to motherhood, and not having children puts women in a potentially vulnerable position. But Qatari women must also play an essential role in reflecting the country as a centre of Arab modernity, availing themselves of the new opportunities in work, politics and public life. This book explores the changing role of women in Qatari society and analyses how Qatari women navigate the competing expectations placed upon them. Based on original interviews with pregnant women and women who have experienced miscarriage - as well as interviews with doctors, religious scholars and family members - the book reveals how socio-cultural forces shape the way miscarriage is framed and experienced. It also reveals how intimate reproductive events are deeply entangled with broader societal and political issues. In exploring the themes of reproduction, motherhood and family relationships, this unique study sheds light on the values and beliefs circulating in Qatari society and how these are mapped on to women's bodies.

A cultural study of modern Qatar and how it navigates change and tradition Qatar, an ambitious country in the Arabian Gulf, grabbed headlines as the first Middle Eastern nation selected to host the FIFA World Cup. As the wealthiest country in the world—and one of the fastest-growing—it is known for its capital, Doha, which boasts a striking, futuristic skyline. In Changing Qatar, Geoff Harkness takes us beyond the headlines, providing a fresh perspective on modern-day life in the increasingly visible Gulf. Drawing on three years of immersive fieldwork and more than a hundred interviews, he describes a country in transition, one struggling to negotiate the fluid boundaries of culture, tradition, and modernity. Harkness shows how Qataris reaffirm—and challenge—traditions in many areas of everyday life, from dating and marriage, to clothing and humor, to gender and sports. A cultural study of citizenship in modern Qatar, this book offers an illuminating portrait that cannot be found elsewhere.

This open access book provides a topical overview of the key sustainability issues in Qatar, focusing on environmental sustainability from a socio-political perspective. The transition to a sustainable Qatar requires engagement with diverse areas of social-political, human, and environmental development. On the environmental aspects, the contributors address climate change, food security, water reuse and desalination, energy, and biodiversity. The socio-political section examines state strategy and regulation, the place of environmental law and geopolitics and sustainability innovators and catalysts. The human section considers economics, sustainability education, the knowledge economy, and waste management. In doing so, the book demarcates the ways in which the country encounters and grapples with significant challenges and delves into the range of options for future pathways to sustainability in Qatar. Relevant to policymakers and scholars in energy and environment, urban and developmental studies, as well as the arenas of politics, climate change and policy, this book is a landmark collection on environmental policy in the Gulf and beyond.

The Persian Gulf state of Qatar has fewer than 2 million inhabitants, virtually no potable water, and has been an independent nation only since 1971. Yet its enormous oil and gas wealth has permitted the ruling al Thani family to exert a disproportionately large influence on regional and even international politics. Qatar is, as Mehran Kamrava explains in this knowledgeable and incisive account of the emirate, a "tiny giant": although severely lacking in most measures of state power, it is highly influential in diplomatic, cultural, and economic spheres. Kamrava presents Qatar as an experimental country, building a new society while exerting what he calls "subtle power." It is both the headquarters of the global media network Al Jazeera and the site of the U.S. Central Command's Forward Headquarters and the Combined Air Operations Center. Qatar has been a major player during the European financial crisis, it has become a showplace for renowned architects, several U.S. universities have established campuses there, and it will host the FIFA World Cup in 2022. Qatar's effective use of its subtle power, Kamrava argues, challenges how we understand the role of small states in the global system. Given the Gulf state's outsized influence on regional and international affairs, this book is a critical and timely account of contemporary Qatari politics and society.

Qatar and the Arab Spring offers a frank examination of Qatar's startling rise to regional and international prominence, describing how its distinctive policy stance toward the Arab Spring emerged. In only a decade, Qatari policy-makers - led by the Emir, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani, and his prime minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim Al-Thani - catapulted Qatar from a sleepy backwater to a regional power with truly international reach. In addition to pursuing an aggressive state-branding strategy with its successful bid for the 2022 FIFA World Cup, Qatar forged a reputation for diplomatic mediation that combined intensely personalized engagement with financial backing and favorable media coverage through the Al-Jazeera. These factors converged in early 2011 with the outbreak of the Arab Spring revolts in North Africa, Syria, and Yemen, which Qatari leaders saw as an opportunity to seal their regional and international influence, rather than as a challenge to their authority, and this guided their support of the rebellions against the Gaddafi and Assad regimes in Libya and Syria. From the high watermark of Qatari influence after the toppling of Gaddafi in 2011, that rapidly gave way to policy overreach in Syria in 2012, Coates Ulrichsen analyses Qatari ambition and capabilities as the tiny emirate sought to shape the transitions in the Arab world.

Part IV. Approaches to understanding the relationship between migration and health.The relevance of culture for migrant health /Tilman Lanz --The sociology of migration and health : the decline in migrants' health due to adverse environments and limited options for care /Steven J. Gold --Economics in migrant health : migrant-sensitive service improvement as a driver for cost savings in health care? /Ursula Trummer, Lika Nusbaum, and Sonja Novak-Zezula --Multilevel and mixed-methods studies of migration and health /Joshua Breslau and Lilian G. Perez -- Epidemiology and the study of migrant health / Nadia N. Abuelezam -- The humanities of migration and health / Carrie J. Preston -- Law, migration, and health in the US context / Sondra S. Crosby, Michael R. Ulrich, and George J. Annas --Migration : a health-equity lens /Felicity Thomas --Part V. Case studies in migration and health.The United States as a case study : policy, access, and outcomes /Sana Loue --Eastern Mediterranean and Balkan migration route /Karl Philipp Puchner --Migration and health in Nepal /Sabrina Hermosilla, Emily Treleaven, and Dirgha Ghimire --Persian Gulf migrants /Maria Kristiansen --South Africa /Jo Vearey --Migration and health in China /Bingqin Li --Asian immigrants in New Zealand /Eleanor Holroyd and Jed Montayre --Mobility and health in the Pacific Islands /Celia McMichael --Venezuela and Latin America /Oscar A. Bernal Acevedo, Jovana A. Ocampo Cañas, Jhon Sebastian Patiño Rueda, Laura Baldovino-Chiquillo, and Salma S. Baizer Cassab --The South Asian context /Muhammad H. Zaman, Reshmaan Hussam, and Hulya Kosematoglu --Part VI. The future of migration and health.Preparing the next generation of scholars in migrant health /Zelde Espinel and James M. Shultz --Migration and health : taking stock and looking to the future /Muhammad H. Zaman, Catherine K. Ettman, and Sandro Galea.

Far and away the most popular sport in the world, football has a special place in Middle Eastern societies, and for Middle Eastern states. With Qatar hosting the 2022 FIFA World Cup, this region has been cast into the global footballing spotlight, raising issues of geopolitical competition, consumer culture and social justice. Taking an interdisciplinary approach, this book examines the complex questions raised by the phenomenon of football as a significant cultural force in the Middle East, as well as its linkages to broader political and socioeconomic processes. The establishment of football as a national sport offers significant insight into the region’s historical experiences with colonialism and struggles for independence, as well as the sport’s vital role in local and regional politics today–whether at the forefront of popular mobilisations, or as an instrument of authoritarian control. Football has also served as an arena of contestation in the formation of national identity, the struggle for gender equality, and the development of the media landscape. The twelve contributions to this volume draw on extensive engagement with the existing body of literature, and introduce original research questions that promise to open new directions for the study of football in the Middle East.

In this groundbreaking history of modern Qatar, Allen J. Fromherz analyzes Qatar's crucial role in the Middle East and its growing regional influence within a broader historical context.

'A wonderful and sometimes devastating book ... sophisticated, nuanced, fair-minded and yet very hard hitting' SIMON KUPER, author of SOCCERNOMICS 'This will transport you to Qatar and teach you with humanity and empathy some of the dark truths about globalisation' BEN JUDAH, author of THIS IS LONDON 'John McManus is a remarkable, compelling writer' RORY STEWART, author of THE PLACES IN BETWEEN 'Wise, well informed, fair-minded and honest' PETER OBORNE, author of THE ASSAULT ON TRUTH AN INTIMATE PORTRAIT OF LIFE IN ONE OF THE WORLD'S RICHEST NATIONS AHEAD OF THE FIFA 2022 WORLD CUP Just 75 years ago, the Gulf nation of Qatar was a backwater, reliant on pearl diving. Today it is a gas-laden parvenu with seemingly limitless wealth and ambition. Skyscrapers, museums and futuristic football stadiums rise out of the desert and Ferraris race through the streets. But in the shadows, migrant workers toil in the heat for risible amounts. Inside Qatar reveals how real people live in this surreal place, a land of both great opportunity and great iniquity. Ahead of Qatar's time in the limelight as host of the 2022 FIFA Men's World Cup, anthropologist John McManus lifts a lid on the hidden worlds of its gilded elite, its spin doctors and thrill seekers, its manual labourers and domestic workers. The sum of their tales is not some exotic cabinet of curiosities. Instead, Inside Qatar opens a window onto the global problems - of unfettered capitalism, growing inequality and climate change - that concern us all.