The most challenging question today for the citizens of any country in the Gulf region is whether their country is heading in the right direction to become a durable, sustainable system, fully supported by its people and capable of being defended from internal and external threats. In The Arab Spring and the Gulf States, Mohamed A. J. Althani, a former minister in the Qatari government, analyses the domestically important areas of demography, security, provision of food and water, and the political and economic systems of the Arab countries at the centre of the turmoil that has spread throughout the region, from Tunisia and Egypt to Sudan and Syria, since early 2011.
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The Gulf state of Qatar tops the Forbes list of the worlds richest countries. In 2010, the country had the the worlds highest GDP per caipta, and its reserves of oil and natural gas are vast. It has been estimated that Qatar will invest more than $120 billion in the energy sector over the next ten years. Yet, Qatar has climbed to this pinnacle of wealth and influence in a remarkably short time, and from a starting point of obscurity and insignificance. more than $120 billion in the energy sector over the next ten years. Yet Qatar has climbed to this pinnacle of wealth and influence in a remarkably short time, and from a starting point of obscurity and insignificance. This astonishing transition is the direct result of the efforts nearly 200 years ago of one visionary man Jassim bin Muhammad Bin Thani, known as the Leader.
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Qatar in the 1830s was a fragmented region, a desert peninsula without security or borders, where coastal communities depended on pearling for survival, while constantly at the mercy of tribal raiders. Jassim background in this precarious environment led to his understanding that the gap between tribal settled people must be bridged, and then to his harnessing of regional conflicts to create a unified Qatari State. Skillfully allying with Ottoman forces to fend off the British, Jassim established power in the newly rebuit capital, Doha, eventually becoming the first leader of the new country. Little known outside Qatar, Jassims extraordinary achievement cannot be understated. By the time of his death on the eve of the First World War, both the Ottomans and the British had recognised Qatar autonomy, and the way was open for the country he had created to move steadily forward to its enviable economic position today.
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