Qatar’s role in brokering the talks marks the culmination of three decades of maneuvering by its leadership to position the emirate as a place where even enemies might meet. It has managed to become a major U.S. ally, even as it also maintains contact with, and hosts on its soil, American enemies like the Taliban, Hamas, and Iran.
For the first decades after its independence in 1971, Qatar was a minor player on the international relations scene, even allowing some foreign affairs to be conducted by its powerful neighbor, Saudi Arabia.
That changed on June 27, 1995, when Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa came to power as emir of Qatar, with the support of the U.S. The new leader immediately launched a project to make his small Gulf state a new player, not simply in the region’s economy, but also in world affairs and in the realm of ideas and cultural influence. For instance, one of his first actions was to fund the Al-Jazeera Arabic satellite television station, allowing Qatar to set the agenda on TV screens from Casablanca to Cairo, usurping the role once played by state information ministries.
Hamad also encouraged his government to invest in new technologies such as Liquified Natural Gas (LNG). The emirate’s gas fields were a game changer because they dramatically enhanced Qatar’s wealth, providing hundreds of billions of dollars that he could export to gain influence as other countries became dependent on Qatari largesse. The emirate’s steady supply of energy also helped keep voters in western Europe happy during the cold winter months, earning the gratitude of the leaders of their countries.
By 1996, Qatar was delivering major shipments of natural gas to energy-hungry Japan and Europe, and accordingly gaining influence. Soon, the amount of LNG coming out of Qatar exceeded the wildest dreams of Hamad and his ministers. This was possible in part because Hamad built and maintained peaceful relations with Iran, which enabled Qatar to share the North Field where most of its gas got pumped.
In addition to becoming an indispensable source for world energy, Qatar also began inviting international universities to build campuses in the emirate. Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, the wife of the Emir Hamad inaugurated “Education City” in 1997. With prestigious institutions from Georgetown to Carnegie Mellon setting up campuses, Qatar has been able to project an image as the center for higher learning in the Middle East, usurping a position once held by far more populous countries such as Egypt and Lebanon.