Saudi-Qatari Crisis: Analytics Study of Power Concept in International Relations (Realism view)

Background information

According to literature, Qatar is unexpectedly found itself under siege from the neighbors. Including, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Egypt and Bahrain which have limited the diplomatic relationship. It was evident that even a modern era, the Qatar citizen’s face a lot of challenges. They have a mindset that Iran and Iraq support terrorism. The US has been one of the critical pro-Saudi lobbyists who is known to be threatening the regime in Qatar. According to history, there has been a significant rivalry between Saudi Arabia and Qatar. Though Qatar has a small size, it is rich in wealth and petroleum resources which provide it with considerable influence. It has therefore been supporting the Arab spring and supported Muslim in Gaza, and Egypt. Qatar and its neighbors were in a big confrontation since it was blamed to have internal affairs. Qatar is, therefore, pursuing different policies of Saudi Arabia (Ulrichsen,2017 .p 123).

According to Joseph Governments tend to use military power to bring threats and fights in a reasonable time. Soft power is difficult since it has crucial resources outside the control of governments as well as their effects depending on heavy acceptance from the audience. Additionally, the government as well as working indirectly to develop a policy as well as taking years producing the required outcomes. Coming up with long-term development strategies and educational exchange as well as cultural development is strategically designed by the Middle East nations. There is a sense of understanding American faults and their virtues (Sailer &Roll, 2017.p 57).

Qatar is said to be faced with federal politics at both international and regional levels. Until 1995 this state has been pursued high profile foreign policies in maintaining harmonious relations, meditations together with its allies in depicting the application of soft power toll, militia in the other states in the Middle East, with the aim of helping Arab democracy forces. Coming up with different profile policies is made to strengthen Qatar security at the national level in the gulf next to as well as playing proactive roles in the Arabic world. Research shows that Qatar is faced with the challenge of coming up with a choice on how it could have a balance between international and regional realities

Aim /Objectives of the study

The primary aim of the study is to elaborate and analyze the Saudi- Qatari crises with the perspective of international Relations theories. To identify how Saudi –Qatar crisis has affected the states in international relations. The concept of realism theory will be applied in the research, and this is used to represent the central pillar. Thucydides developed this theory it highlights on neorealism as well as states opinions of key personnel in the theory development, from Thucydides to Morgenthau mentioning also some views regarding this critical thing which is undoubtedly essential for our study.

 Research problem

Based on the history Qatar has faced several crises which affects its reputation at the international relation. This problem could impede this state from developing economically politically as well as making foreign countries take control of the state’s resources utilization.

Saudi –Qatar crisis can be identified through the use of realism view. This research is on the analytical study of the concept of power in international relations. The analysis will further show how Qatar is relating with its neighbors.

Theoretical framework

This study will highlight the strategy followed by Qatar from hard and soft power to strengthen and maintain its status quo in the as it faced challenges from its neighbors including, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Egypt. Moreover the study  aimed at showing  how Qatar managed to maximize the use of its resources in military and economic as well as its capability in soft power withstanding  a year and a half of the blockade and provide a model is how this country   by the standards of traditional power was able to turn into a small, steady state. Compared to the past researches, it appears that Qatar is a small state and its position at the international system is factored to be weak and having dependence. This state is presented with having dependency as well as lacking influence in the native countries of the neighbors. Qatar has introduced a model to the world to challenging the prevailing wisdom, the smart employment of economic strength and active diplomacy and cohesion of the internal front, and its relations and alliances with the most prominent two forces, regionally   and internationally contributed in securing the stability of the state and challenging the blockade and repeal its effects on all levels.

Research questions

The following research questions guided the researcher in this study.

1. What are the elements of power of the state of Qatar as a small state that managed to change the route of crisis that targeted its existence?
2. How was it able to employ elements of hard and soft power together?

• Will it be able to provide evidence of the ability of small countries to deal with the geopolitics facts?

  Classical and neo-realism in international relations theories

According to the research classical and neo-realism in international relations approaches are aimed at struggling for power. It is stated that international politics has a sense of permanent struggles for power and the critical ultimate goal is foreign policy.  Interestingly power is always an urgent goal; power is the essence of political analysis. Power and politics are inseparable because energy is the starting point for policy analysis. Each country has a set of goals that it seeks to achieve at the external level, mainly represented by its security, its desire to control and gain influence, and its desire to impose its will on other countries, in which goals achievement is connected to the size of power that state has. Carl Frederick’s defined power as ” the ability to influence the behavior of others to obtain desired results, that is, the ability to control.”It can, therefore, be concluded that power is not only the possession of power tools but also the availability of ability factor. For instance, a state may possess the elements of power but cannot use these tools to achieve its desired goals by imposing control over the other to make its interests (Mohammed,2015.p 1-8).

The concept of Soft Power

The idea of power is not a new idea in international relations, and it is a sometimes controversial and contradictory issue. Power concept plays a various and changing role, and it is subjected to renewable definitions and interpretations. Its worthy to mention in this part, the classical or realistic school of international relations affirms that power is the ability of a country to impose its will and desire on others in the global system. According to history Joseph Nye was the first man who formulated the concept of soft power, but before Nay announced his theory, soft power appeared through human history in ancient century through the writings of Confucius and Socrates, but the first appearance of the method was in the twentieth century by the Italian thinker   in his theory of cultural hegemony, and the French Republic was the first to use this concept through the cultural influence on the peoples of its colonies. The United Kingdom and the United States of America also promoted this concept, President Woodrow Wilson used the soft power principle based on peace and the reconstruction of Europe again after the World War I, but this didn’t prevent the World War II (Joseph,2004.p 5).

After World War II, attempts were made to use soft power through the Fulbright Student Exchange Program in 1946 as a mean to influence on other cultures and dominate the minds of societies, as well as the use of soft power during the ideological conflict between the Socialist and Capitalist camps. Following the fall of the Soviet Union, the theory of soft power was appeared by Joseph Nye and used by the United States of America to emphasize the one unipolar, system and to spread freedom values, democracy, and human rights.

It can, therefore, claimed that soft power is the other face of hard power. In a definition of soft power, Joseph Nye says “Soft power lies in the ability to attract and persuade. Whereas hard power—the ability to coerce—grows out of a country’s military or economic might, soft power arises from the attractiveness of a country’s culture, political ideals, and policies”. It is an attracting power that makes people want what you want instead of forcing them to change their behavior by military force or economic sanctions. In brief, it is the ability to convince others to implement your agenda without explicit threat or swap. The attractiveness of the values and characteristics of the model is what makes others cooperate willingly, and follow specific behavior or not. Nye determines the soft power resources of countries at three levels. In spite of close link between soft and hard power, in their integration of practicing the influence on others behavior, the possession of soft power resources does not necessarily require the same amount of possession hard power resources. The effect of soft power is often more extensive than of the hard power, which is usually governed by time and place(Maziad, 2018.p 52).

The Saudi-Qatari crisis

According to the research the Saudi-Qatari crisis can be analyzed and understood that the State of Qatar is a small country with a classical power resource scale and geopolitical location in the heart of the Gulf between two large countries (the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia), and this increases its fragility and makes its security increasingly threatened. Security threats are rising with rising of the tensions between its two giant neighbors (Morgenthau,2013.p 25-30).

The study finds out that the State of Qatar is facing a very critical situation as a compared with its political case internationally and its economic resources. With fourth regional allied powers (the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, the Kingdom of Bahrain and the Arab Republic of Egypt) against it, that indicates the inconsistency of the whole equation. The allied of the mentioned regional countries exceed the state of Qatar’s power in several sectors (military, economy, the size, and location of the country and population) ( Relations Theories 1997.p 56-57).

Theoretically, this enormous imbalance in favor of the Quadricade makes the possibility for the State of Qatar to withstand against a land, sea and air blockade with a declared determination to change the regime. The State of Qatar could have collapsed in the first days of the embargo, but so far it could manage to withstand and to fail the plan at all levels (Tim et al., 2017.p 35).

This turbulent and unbalanced relationship between the State of Qatar and the Quadricade alliance has prompted the State of Qatar to think in an unconventional way of adjusting the balance of power and confronting the challenges posed by geopolitical facts and sought to combine the two hard and soft power models by enhancing its resources of hard power and create soft power resources. That means, the State of Qatar in the field of hard power has used its strategic position in the Gulf region and the Middle East to host the US Central Command and the Joint Air Force Command at the base of (Al Aadead) and developed its military, security and economic cooperation with the United States of America. And the State of Qatar began to develop bilateral cooperation with the Republic of Turkey, especially in the military field since 2014, where the two countries signed a defense agreement under which a Turkish military was started in the State of Qatar. The State of Qatar also strengthened its relationship with other partners in Europe, led by the United Kingdom and the French Republic (Izz, 2018.p 12).

These objectives of a military base in the State of Qatar from the Qatari perspective to provide military protection to itself  as a small country does not have a strategic depth ability  to provide the necessary protection for it as well as being a floating state on the sea of natural gas, especially after the American talk about the possibility of closing the US military base (Al Added) which located on Qatari Lands, which may pose a threat to the national security of the State of Qatar, so the State of Qatar has to sign military agreements with the Republic of Turkey for possible confrontation with neighbor countries, especially after the escalation of Gulf-Qatar crisis since 2104 and then escalated in 5/6/2017 (Nuruzzaman,2015.p 226).

Regional reactions on Turkish military base in the State of Qatar varied through the list of demands of the four boycotting countries against the State of Qatar  Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates,    Bahrain and the Arab Republic of Egypt), which were submitted by the State of Kuwait to Doha, included the closure of the Republic of Turkey its Turkish Military base in Doha. Then, Turkish Defense Minister (Fikri Ishek) has commented forth enclosure of the military base in the State of Qatar as an interference in the bilateral relationship, confirming that there are no plans to re-evaluate the agreement on the military base in the State of Qatar (Adnan,1998.p 13).

In fact, it was increasing the hard power resources of the State of Qatar that evoked the fear of the fourth allied, but the increase of the State of Qatar influence to develop its soft power. The State of Qatar invested in the media since more than 20 years and released (Aljazeera) channel in 1995, that soon became an international player competing with major global media networks, especially after turning into a network contains multi-channel and multi-language digital platforms in the western level. Al Jazeera highlighted on corruption places and domination and dependence of most systems, then formed a media opinion against the tyranny, defending freedom and called for change. But most of the region’s governments, including Gulf governments have stood against it.

At the level of foreign policy, the State of Qatar has adopted an independent line which made it different and sometimes collided with some of its neighbors (robust) systems.  The State of Qatar has supported the revolutions of (the Arab Spring), which started from the Republic of Tunisia in 2010 and spread into the Arab Republic of Egypt, the State of Libya, the Republic of Yemen and then to the Syrian Arab Republic. Then the State of Qatar found itself stood with a broad change movement led by new political and social forces, prominent by Political Islamic forces. This alignment made it in the confrontation with the conservative regimes in the region, led by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (Nuruzzaman,2015.p 226).

These regional and international alliances have contributed in varying degrees in changing the route of Gulf crisis and provided the State of Qatar with additional factors to withstand the fourfold siege.Regarding soft power, the State of Qatar has been able to achieve an essential step in hosting the World Cup for the year (2022), and the State of Qatar sponsors several international sports clubs.

Conclusion

Generally the study discovered that the Saudi-Qatari crisis has represented the discussion of small countries in the international system and the regional networks. Also presented assumptions for power conceptions of their types, hard and soft, and ways of their use. And this confirms our assumption of withstanding of the State of Qatar in this crisis gives an evidence of possibility that small countries could deal positively with the geopolitics facts by synchronizing the resources of soft power and employ them vigorously, with using availability of hard power at this level even if the balance of power tends to its disadvantage.

The State of Qatar has been able to use the resources of soft power in a smart and synchronized way with using the resources of reliable power. Within these two tracks, the State of Qatar is trying to create a balance of power especially in the Gulf region, and in the Middle East in general. In the Nutshell State of Qatar is facing a very critical situation as a compared with its political case internationally and its economic resources. It is also clearly shown that previous crisis in Qatar has affected its international relation reputation making the other states develop negative attitude toward the states.  This affected the state both politically and economically as we can see the superpower states like the US intervening to bring peace to the region. Generally, the realistic view of the international relation sensitizes on the need of Qatar to be independent by itself making its own decision on development, and economic matter could help the state have a better relationship with her neighbors.

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