How Qatar turns its cash into foreign policy power | The Business Standard
Skip to main content
  • Latest
  • Economy
    • Banking
    • Stocks
    • Industry
    • Analysis
    • Bazaar
    • RMG
    • Corporates
    • Aviation
  • Videos
    • TBS Today
    • TBS Stories
    • TBS World
    • News of the day
    • TBS Programs
    • Podcast
    • Editor's Pick
  • World+Biz
  • Features
    • Panorama
    • The Big Picture
    • Pursuit
    • Habitat
    • Thoughts
    • Splash
    • Mode
    • Tech
    • Explorer
    • Brands
    • In Focus
    • Book Review
    • Earth
    • Food
    • Luxury
    • Wheels
  • Subscribe
    • Get the Paper
    • Epaper
    • GOVT. Ad
  • More
    • Sports
    • TBS Graduates
    • Bangladesh
    • Supplement
    • Infograph
    • Archive
    • Gallery
    • Long Read
    • Interviews
    • Offbeat
    • Magazine
    • Climate Change
    • Health
    • Cartoons
  • বাংলা
The Business Standard

Thursday
July 24, 2025

Sign In
Subscribe
  • Latest
  • Economy
    • Banking
    • Stocks
    • Industry
    • Analysis
    • Bazaar
    • RMG
    • Corporates
    • Aviation
  • Videos
    • TBS Today
    • TBS Stories
    • TBS World
    • News of the day
    • TBS Programs
    • Podcast
    • Editor's Pick
  • World+Biz
  • Features
    • Panorama
    • The Big Picture
    • Pursuit
    • Habitat
    • Thoughts
    • Splash
    • Mode
    • Tech
    • Explorer
    • Brands
    • In Focus
    • Book Review
    • Earth
    • Food
    • Luxury
    • Wheels
  • Subscribe
    • Get the Paper
    • Epaper
    • GOVT. Ad
  • More
    • Sports
    • TBS Graduates
    • Bangladesh
    • Supplement
    • Infograph
    • Archive
    • Gallery
    • Long Read
    • Interviews
    • Offbeat
    • Magazine
    • Climate Change
    • Health
    • Cartoons
  • বাংলা
THURSDAY, JULY 24, 2025
How Qatar turns its cash into foreign policy power

Middle East

Deutsche Welle
18 December, 2022, 05:30 pm
Last modified: 18 December, 2022, 06:00 pm

Related News

  • Congo, M23 rebels pledge in Qatar to reach peace deal next month
  • Iran's missile strike in Qatar damaged US communications dome: satellite images
  • Khaleda Zia sends seasonal fruits to Qatar's Emir, PM
  • Iran's Pezeshkian expresses 'regret' to the emir of Qatar
  • ‘Congratulations world, it’s time for peace’: Trump thanks Iran for ‘early notice’ on attacks

How Qatar turns its cash into foreign policy power

For years, Qatar has pursued a "soft" foreign policy that helped make international friends and influence the powerful. It includes spending billions on everything from fashion, art and sport, to charities and industry

Deutsche Welle
18 December, 2022, 05:30 pm
Last modified: 18 December, 2022, 06:00 pm
Photo: DW
Photo: DW

The glamorous event was covered in all the best magazines. The exhibition in Qatar, coming shortly before the start of the football World Cup and featuring Italian brand Valentino was described as "panoramic." At the exhibition's opening, former supermodel Naomi Campbell was "the belle of ball," journalists enthused.

But it was not just the fine weather in Qatar drawing high profile fashion names to the small Persian Gulf state.

A Qatari investment fund, Mayhoola, actually owns Valentino, having brought the struggling Italian luxury brand back in 2012. And Campbell was there to launch Emerge, a new fashion charity to promote young designers from emerging economies, in partnership with a Qatari arts initiative, called Qatar Creates.

The Business Standard Google News Keep updated, follow The Business Standard's Google news channel

The famous EMERGE fashion show rocked Doha. Check it out! #QatarCreates #LiveItAll #OnePass pic.twitter.com/8w9ItBwivL— Qatar Creates (@QatarCreates) October 29, 2022

Emerge was initially reported as being an offshoot of Campbell's UK-based charity, Fashion For Relief. But the latter is currently under investigation by the British Charities Commission for potential mismanagement and misconduct. One of the alleged issues is that Fashion For Relief had spent much of the money it raised, around £1.6 million (€1.86 million, $1.98 million) on glamorous events in 2019 but only donated around £205,000 of that to good causes.

The Charities Commission told DW it had appointed interim managers to Fashion For Relief and those managers, UK-based lawyers, said that Campbell's new charity, Emerge, had nothing to do with Fashion For Relief's finances.

"I have no idea where they are getting the money from [for Emerge]," one of the interim managers told DW. It seems likely Campbell's Qatari partners were involved financially. Tickets were also sold to Emerge events in Doha with top tier seats going for thousands. 

It's not illegal to network
Unlike recent allegations around bribes paid to European parliamentarians, connections like this, between Qatar and celebrities like Campbell, are clearly lawful. But they do provide another example of how Qatar uses its hefty financial resources to burnish its international image, with what has been described as "cultural diplomacy."

Other illustrations of the kinds of influential, reputation-enhancing investments Qatar has made through various state-linked investment funds include the purchase of French football club, Paris Saint-Germain.

Qatar owns 95% of one of London's most iconic buildings, The Shard
Qatar owns 95% of one of London's most iconic buildings, The Shard

Qatar also owns British luxury department store, Harrods, French department store chain, Printemps, a number of luxury hotels in London including the Ritz and Claridge's, and luxury clothing labels Balmain, based in France, and Pal Zileri, originally from Italy.

Reports suggest that the Qatari royal family also spends around $1 billion (€940 million) on art annually. 

Among less glamorous investments are Qatar's shares in Siemens, Volkswagen, Porsche and Deutsche Bank in Germany, along with stakes in Heathrow airport, Barclay's Bank and Sainsbury's supermarket in the UK. 

Why is Qatar doing this?
In the 1970s, after natural gas was discovered, the small Gulf state went from being one of the poorest countries in the world to one of the wealthiest. The country is now home to almost 3 million people, of which only between 10% and 15% are indigenous Qataris. The rest are foreigners working in Qatar, who do not have the same rights as the native Qataris.

Qatari leader, Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, inherited the role from his father in 2013Image: Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
Qatari leader, Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, inherited the role from his father in 2013Image: Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

Qatar has one of the highest per-capita incomes in the world. In 2021, the World Bank recorded it as almost $61,300 per Qatari, an amount higher than many European nations including Germany and France.

Qatar is also a monarchy, ruled over by the Al Thani dynasty, which has an estimated 2,000 members. That includes the current head of state, Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani.

Qatari leader, Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, inherited the role from his father in 2013Image: Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

The country is often described as a "rentier state," where the state brings in revenues, or "rent," and then disperses that to citizens. Almost everyone in Qatar is guaranteed a job and Qatari citizens are provided power, water and education for free.

Beyond that, money and power tends to be dispensed by the royal family, usually along the lines of a long-established system of hereditary and tribal ties.

'Enlightened despotism'
Experts say there is no real separation between the state and the ruling family's interests. Although Qatar may have some of the trappings of a democracy, there is no real opposition, no civil society, no genuine elections and limited freedom of expression, especially when it comes to criticism of Qatari leadership.

Qatar's national museum was designed by French architect Jean Nouvel and opened in 2019
Qatar's national museum was designed by French architect Jean Nouvel and opened in 2019

The Corruption Risk Forecast, a system developed by several academic organizations including the European Research Center for Anti-Corruption and State Building at Berlin-based private university, the Hertie School, describes Qatar as having "a good governance model based on enlightened despotism."

Since around 2009, Qatar's leaders have been consolidating the country's soft power in foreign policy, presenting a carefully controlled image of the country as a modern, neutral ally. Along with direct lobbying, this includes the multiple, complex layers of investment, influence and communications campaigns.

"Qatar's highly sophisticated and sustained foreign lobbying and interlocking influence campaigns … are cited by analysts as textbook examples of how to parlay cash into soft power," Jamie Dettmer, Politico's opinion editor, argued earlier this week.

Influence equals insurance
Qatar has good reasons for doing this. Most experts agree that Qatar — a small, resource-rich country, lying between large, occasionally threatening and always competitive neighbors like Saudi Arabia and Iran, but lacking its own "hard power" or military — needed to improve its standing and connections on the world stage. That way, it has insurance if attacked.

There are other motives for Qatar's soft power push too. One is simply that it makes good business sense. The Gulf states, some of the world's largest suppliers of oil and gas, know their customers are moving towards more environmentally friendly energies. To survive in the future, they must diversify, and this is where investments into tourism, sport and other sectors come into it.

Doha's Museum of Islamic Art was designed by award-winning Chinese-American architect, I.M. PeiImage: Norbert SCHMIDT/picture alliance
Doha's Museum of Islamic Art was designed by award-winning Chinese-American architect, I.M. PeiImage: Norbert SCHMIDT/picture alliance

Another reason involves domestic politics. Analysts have also argued that, as the country develops, it is no longer enough for ruling royals to "buy" the loyalty of native Qataris with income from oil and gas. This is why high profile, state-funded symbols promoting unity and an Qatari heritage are all so important, researchers have said. That includes the National Museum of Qatar, the Museum of Islamic Art and even this month's football World Cup.

Promoting values without practicing them
Of course, none of this is illegal. And all countries lobby for influence and compete on foreign policy. The criticism in Qatar's case is that most of the big spending is opaque because those making the financial decisions are not beholden to voters, shareholders or journalists.

Qatar has tried to make improvements and perceptions of corruption in the country reflect that. Transparency International's ranking on "perceived levels of public sector corruption" have Qatar at 63 points (100 is seen as not corrupt). That's second best in the Middle East, after the United Arab Emirates, and better than some EU states, including Spain, Portugal and Hungary.

Football fans in Germany called for a boycott of the World Cup contest this year because of Qatar's human rights recordImage: Hendrik Schmidt/dpa/picture alliance
Football fans in Germany called for a boycott of the World Cup contest this year because of Qatar's human rights recordImage: Hendrik Schmidt/dpa/picture alliance

Most recently this month's World Cup has brought its host country both good and bad publicity. Allegations around the most recent EU Parliament scandal have put more focus on Qatar's complicated mix of influence operations and image enhancement too. Might this increased pressure make the country behave in a more transparent way?

"Being more transparent without anyone being able to do anything about it —  so without having civic space and an independent media  — is problematic," Kinda Hattar, Transparency International's regional adviser for the Middle East, told DW. "And in general, I don't see the Gulf states heading in that direction," she concluded.

Top News / World+Biz

qatar / Foreign Policy

Comments

While most comments will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive, moderation decisions are subjective. Published comments are readers’ own views and The Business Standard does not endorse any of the readers’ comments.

Top Stories

  • 2 Milestone teachers, who died trying to save students, to be given state honour: Govt
    2 Milestone teachers, who died trying to save students, to be given state honour: Govt
  • File photo of Bangladesh Bank. Photo: TBS
    Governor Mansur orders withdrawal of BB dress code after directive draws criticism
  • Milestone tragedy: Chinese medical experts conduct video consultation with burn institute doctors
    Milestone tragedy: Chinese medical experts conduct video consultation with burn institute doctors

MOST VIEWED

  • Photo: Collected
    Bangladeshi man jailed for life in UK for murdering wife in front of their baby
  • Ctg port authority halts contractor recruitment for Kamalapur ICD operations for two months
    Ctg port authority halts contractor recruitment for Kamalapur ICD operations for two months
  • Fire at Cosmo School in Mirpur on 23 July 2025. Photo: TBS
    Fire breaks out at Cosmo School in Mirpur following generator explosion
  • Representational image. File Photo: Rajib Dhar/TBS
    Debate arises as edu adviser says postponed HSC exams of 22 and 24 July will be held on same day
  • BB issues dress code for all, discourages short-sleeved or length dresses, leggings for female staff
    BB issues dress code for all, discourages short-sleeved or length dresses, leggings for female staff
  • Infographics: TBS
    Stay orders won’t shield defaulters: BB governor 

Related News

  • Congo, M23 rebels pledge in Qatar to reach peace deal next month
  • Iran's missile strike in Qatar damaged US communications dome: satellite images
  • Khaleda Zia sends seasonal fruits to Qatar's Emir, PM
  • Iran's Pezeshkian expresses 'regret' to the emir of Qatar
  • ‘Congratulations world, it’s time for peace’: Trump thanks Iran for ‘early notice’ on attacks

Features

Photo: Collected

24 July: More than 1400 arrested, 3 missing coordinators found

12h | Panorama
Photo: Mehedi Hasan/TBS

Aggrieved nation left with questions as citizens rally to help at burn institute

1d | Panorama
Photo: Mehedi Hasan/TBS

Mourning turns into outrage as Milestone students seek truth and justice

1d | Panorama
Illustration: TBS

Uttara, Jatrabari, Savar and more: The killing fields that ran red with July martyrs’ blood

2d | Panorama

More Videos from TBS

Thai-Cambodian troops clash over disputed border

Thai-Cambodian troops clash over disputed border

1h | TBS World
Former chief justice Khairul Haque detained

Former chief justice Khairul Haque detained

1h | TBS Today
Why are there renewed tensions between Iran and Israel?

Why are there renewed tensions between Iran and Israel?

2h | Others
Coca-Cola is launching a 'Trump version' made with cane sugar

Coca-Cola is launching a 'Trump version' made with cane sugar

4h | Others
EMAIL US
contact@tbsnews.net
FOLLOW US
WHATSAPP
+880 1847416158
The Business Standard
  • About Us
  • Contact us
  • Sitemap
  • Advertisement
  • Privacy Policy
  • Comment Policy
Copyright © 2025
The Business Standard All rights reserved
Technical Partner: RSI Lab

Contact Us

The Business Standard

Main Office -4/A, Eskaton Garden, Dhaka- 1000

Phone: +8801847 416158 - 59

Send Opinion articles to - oped.tbs@gmail.com

For advertisement- sales@tbsnews.net