Qatar Steps Forward, Britain at its Back

A floating orchestral score pours over the walls of an Edinburgh concert house, its quick notes and fantastical tones taking full advantage of the famed acoustics of Usher Hall.  The Royal Scottish National Orchestra is playing “The Oryx and the Unicorn”, an uplifting arrangement originally penned by Qatari composer Wael Binali for a 2012 charity gala for the Shafallah Center, a Doha-based non-profit for children with mental and physical disabilities.  Colorful and carefree, the song is perfectly suited for what you’d swear was some well-loved Disney/Pixar film. Last week, Binali’s work featured in the Usher Hall event alongside other British and Qatari musical offerings as part of the joint arts exchange initiative Qatar UK 2013 Year of Culture.  By coincidence, the concert highlighted a week littered with news about the ever-expanding relationship between the two and Qatar’s adopted position as regional bridge builder.

Listen: “The Oryx and the Unicorn” – Wael Binali

Qatar featured prominently on a much larger stage last week – one of the diplomatic variety – with the convening of a fast-tracked meeting in Doha of the Friends of Syria* foreign ministers following the G8 summit in Northern Ireland and the announcement that it would play host to U.S. talks with the Afghan Taliban.  They have both proven to be shaky shows.  The Friends of Syria meeting, while producing assurances of urgent action and military aid through a “western-backed rebel group,” crafted its language in a manner that suggests the body won’t be deviating from the non-intervention assistance message its previously espoused but will just be executing that route more quickly.

The Taliban meeting has proven an even trickier undertaking.  The Afghan government has so far boycotted the talks, its leadership saying it would refuse to participate unless discussions were self-lead.  A Taliban flag charged its way above the building used as the group’s Doha base, giving it the distinct look of a recognized embassy.  The audience was not best pleased by such brash showmanship and the flag was pulled in a forced olive branch to the Karzai administration.

As we awaited response from Kabul, Qatar witnessed a change in national conductor.  Emir Sheih Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani peacefully transferred power to his son, Sheikh Tamim bin Khalifa Al-Thani, on June 24, a move rationalized by the sixty-one year old ruler as a reflection of the need for youthful leadership – young enough to carry Qatar through what the small Gulf state hopes will be a breakneck course in domestic development, regional influence, and global reach.  As it happens, his chosen heir is the embodiment of the state’s ties with the U.K.

Educated at the exclusive Sherborne School in Dorset, England, Tamim attended Sandhurst Military Academy – Britain’s West Point – before returning to the Gulf to serve in Qatar’s Army.  Aside from his positions as deputy-commander-in-chief of the Army and Sports Administrator, Tamim served as the Chair of the Board of Directors for the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), a firm whose U.K. investments will be scattered throughout the rest of this discussion.

Having just returned from a week in Doha, it is no surprise to this writer how and why Qatar wedged itself into holding box theater seats for two of the most complicated and headline grabbing political shows between the West and the Middle East.  The unmistakable texture of the capital’s skyline itself, climbing upward from the desert, captures the attitude of the country well — a peninsula clearly in the midst of a massive cross-cultural experiment, a convergence of old Arabia and the curious West.  That very skyline didn’t exist even a decade ago, yet its geography is now saturated in fine dining and luxury services, freckled by shopping plazas with artificial water routes for gondola tours, hockey rinks and interior roller coasters – all sharing space with Michael Kors and Versace.

Make no mistake, it is far from losing itself to parlor tricks and gimmicks.  Tradition is still king.  Calls to prayer echo from every corner; images of the outgoing Emir and his successor are scattered throughout the city; its gold, spice and textiles souqs still thrive and make for lovely cooler evening strolls; and the Museum of Islamic Art is an education in cultural pride, resting in what is decidedly one of the most architecturally intriguing museums I’ve ever seen, matched by an equally-impressive amphitheatre carved from marble on the cultural promenade at Katara Village along the shoreline.

Qatar may be no larger than Long Island, but it packs a serious economic punch.  It is the current placeholder for wealthiest per capita state on the planet, and its taken to spending lavishly on the U.K.  When Barclays buckled in 2008, the QIA came on as majority shareholder.  It owns twenty percent of the London Stock Exchange and the Sainsbury’s grocery chain; counts One Hyde Park, the most expensive block of homes in the world, and retail giant Harrods among its British assets.  Last year’s Olympic Village?  Owned by QIA when the Games ended.  The Shard, Europe’s tallest skyscraper, piercing its pointed and peeled body through the London sky?  Qatari.  Ninety-five percent of the liquefied natural gas imported by Britain is wretched from the earth beneath Qatari feet.

Current figures put Qatari investment in Britain in the ballpark of $34 billion dollars — a figure set to skyrocket amid reports circulated last week of an additional $15-23 billion which looks to leap off the dotted line and into an exchange of hands in only the next few years.  As Qatar makes plans to plunge billions into infrastructure, to include a city metro in Doha, sprawling road and rail systems, and a causeway to Bahrain, British firms are at the forefront of winning engineering and design contracts for such projects.  U.K. business increasingly wants in to take advantage of an eastern market that has already placed itself firmly outside its own doorstep.

The American and British expat population in Qatar continues to grow rapidly, adding to a national workforce comprised almost entirely of foreign labor.  It leaves little wonder about the source of Doha’s cultural intersection.  Conversely, one very high-profile figure making his way out of Qatar is its prime minister, billionaire Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jabr al-Thani.  The premier’s exit from office follows suit with the transfer of power between the Emir and his son.  His relocation destination?  The shores of Britannia, an announcement out this week that added another layer to the repetitive coupling of these two states in the news.

The relationship isn’t all bouquets and bows at the close of a night of fine music. Britain sees its friendship with Qatar as ripe for expansion — an ally with abundant energy resources, eager to offer investment while it explores European opportunities.  Qatar sees Britain as an access point to its development pursuits, equally eager to build relationships in the Middle East.  Unfortunately for both, this post didn’t start with a chat about their bilateral ties.  That discussion came after overarching regional concerns.  Qatar rests in a notorious neighborhood, and its alliances are pulled, necessarily, in directions the West isn’t thrilled about.  Iran and, in a persistent rumor, the Muslim Brotherhood, are counted among friends.  State support for citizens is vast, preventing an emergence of Arab Spring revolt against a family in power for the last 150 years.  It hopes to stay that way, and that can often mean, perhaps crudely, siding with the winning teams in regional security debates.  It’s a ceaseless effort to remain level.  Like it’s capital city, Qatar is made to be all things to all parties, at once East and West but avoiding being too much of either.

The politics of dismantlement have dominated the landscape of the Arab Spring, marred by bloodshed, heartbreak, disillusionment, uncomfortable bedfellows, and unsettled neighbors.  With so much uncertainty about when and if the region would find its feet, and whether the West would lose its own footing there, a politically stable, wealthy ally lead by a seasoned protégé un-shy of a personal narrative shared in the United Kingdom and receptive to more of it, is a relationship worth playing a melody for right now.  Play it again, Maestro.

*Friends of Syria Group member states: Egypt, France, Germany, Italy, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, United Arab Emirates (U.A.E.), United Kingdom and United States.