Collected Papers | Volume 3 | October 2015
The following three papers were presented in Doha in January 2015 at a workshop on ‘Mapping GCC Foreign Policy: Resources, Recipients and Regional Effects’. The workshop aimed to analyse the increasingly interventionist Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states’ foreign policy. The first paper, by Evren Balta, addresses the impact of the Syrian war on Turkey’s Kurdish conflict, while the other two tackle Qatar’s foreign policy.
For many analysts of the Arab Gulf states, politics of the Gulf stop at the water’s edge. Evren Balta’s work, however, represents the best of comparative case analysis focused on understanding the domestic context of the politics of minority populations and separatist movements that spread over existing state boundaries. In a MENA region with competing centres of power and influence, these domestic spillovers will allow us to anticipate regional changes and alliances.
The foreign policy of Qatar has been a moving target over the last decade, though few analysts have been able to attribute exactly how domestic and international factors have had a causal effect. In his paper, Jamal Abdullah focuses on the domestic politics within Qatar and its leadership transition, giving specific attention to Qatar’s role as regional mediator. The paper by Evren Tok, Jason McSparren and Fatima Ramadan Sanz puts Qatari foreign investment in comparative perspective and asks what strategic goals Qatar seeks to achieve with its widening foreign economic policy.
Papers
The Syrian War and Turkey’s Kurdish Conflict
Evren Balta
Qatari Foreign Policy: Reorientation or Adjustment to the Rhythm?
Jamal Abdullah
Contours of Qatar–Sub-Saharan Africa Relations: Shedding Light on Trends and Prospects
Jason J. McSparren, Mohamed Evren Tok & Fatima Mahmoud Ramadan Sanz