Blockade Of Qatar Research Articles

The UAE's Foreign Policy Drivers

AbstractA small state with big ambitions, the United Arab Emirates has become a major player in the Middle East region, especially since the Arab Spring. It played a major role in weakening the Muslim Brotherhood by supporting rulers like Abdel Fattah al‐Sisi of Egypt and would‐be leaders such as General Khalifa Haftar of Libya. Abu Dhabi was the critical player behind the blockade of Qatar in 2017, and it has taken a leading role in the normalization of Syrian President Bashar al‐Assad. This article employs a range of theoretical perspectives, including structural realism and liberalism, to explain the UAE's foreign policy and behavior. It argues that there are at least four major drivers: combating political Islam, containing Iran, dominating regional ports and waterways, and increasing economic prosperity.

Political patronage, and banks’ profitability in Bahrain

Purpose This paper aims to contribute to the political connection literature by investigating the impact of political connection on banks’ profitability in Bahrain. Design/methodology/approach Exploiting the unique natural experiment of the 2017 Qatar blockade crisis, this study uses primary data of political connection. The study uses the difference-in-difference (DID) methodology to investigate the effect of political connections on banks’ profitability. Findings The main finding is that political connections have a positive effect on bank profitability in Bahrain. The paper finds that the ongoing GCC crisis has had a negative effect on the banking sector of Bahrain. During the Qatar blockade crisis, politically connected banks suffered more than their non-connected counterparts. Practical implications The result suggests that the Qatar blockade crisis has had a notable effect on the banking system throughout the region, including both the boycotting countries as well as Qatar. In the banking sector, politically connected banks are the most harmed by the crisis. Investors can enhance their hedging and investment decisions by exploiting knowledge of how political connections affected bank profitability during the Qatar diplomatic crisis and how that effect can be transmitted from one market to another. In addition, regulators could use insights about the association between political connections and profitability in Bahrain to undertake strategies to increase banks’ profitability and mitigate the transmission effect of a crisis by ensuring adequate regulation and supervision. Originality/value This paper offers four novel contributions to political connection literature as follows: Firstly, the study fills in an important gap in the literature as it is the first attempt to quantify the impact of political connections on bank performance in Bahrain. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the role of political factors in Bahrain has not been studied about the banking system. Secondly, the study depends on primary data about political connections collected manually from various sources. Thirdly, this is the first study to investigate the effect of the Qatar blockade on the banking sector. Lastly, the evidence suggests that politically connected banks are more profitable than banks that lack political connections. However, the Qatar blockade crisis resulted in a sharp decrease in bank profitability, suggesting that the crisis significantly harmed the banking sector in Bahrain.

Qatar: Between the Blockade and the World Cup

This article examines how the 2017–21 blockade of Qatar affected the country’s preparations for the 2022 World Cup and analyzes the steps that were undertaken by policymakers in Doha to overcome the domestic and regional/international challenges that arose in (and after) 2017. Four sections explore different aspects of the blockade, its impact both domestically and regionally, and the ways the blockade intersected with the World Cup preparations. The article opens with a section that examines the issue of political risk, which was seen as one of the vulnerabilities of Qatar’s hosting of FIFA’s signature global event. This leads into a second section that analyzes the ways in which the blockade was designed to create and magnify a climate of uncertainty that would call into question Qatar’s suitability as a host nation. In the third section, the focus shifts to the measures that were implemented to strengthen Qatar’s domestic resilience and solidify its regional and international partnerships. The article ends with a fourth section that explores the legacy of the blockade and looks ahead to the future of the Gulf region as a host of mega-events, especially in sport, through the remainder of the 2020s and possibly beyond.

Digital routes and borders in the Middle East: the geopolitical underpinnings of Internet connectivity

ABSTRACT In the second half of the 2010s, the Arabian Peninsula experienced major foreign policy changes that suggested a reshuffling of the region as a security complex. This paper offers an analysis of the geography of Internet data routing in the Middle East in order to assess whether foreign policy shifts apply to cyberspace and the potential for meaningful cybersecurity cooperation. We specifically focus on the Qatar blockade and the Abraham agreements. Our main hypothesis is that the architecture of connectivity can reveal the level of existing cooperation between data-routing operators of different countries and can therefore serve as one among many indicators for the level of trust (or lack thereof) between these countries and, as a result, for the potential success of cyber cooperation. We argue that the architecture of connectivity only partially reflects foreign policy shifts in the Gulf Region and despite the political announcements, digital borders and rivalries in the region remain deep and could potentially create obstacles for meaningful cybersecurity cooperation.

The Gulf Cooperation Council and the Elusiveness of Defense Cooperation: The Revealing Effect of the 2017–2021 Crisis

The 2017–21 blockade of Qatar has frequently been depicted as the largest obstacle to further cooperation within the Gulf Cooperation Council. However, this narrative overestimates the impact of the dispute and underestimates the historical limitations of the GCC and its multilateral projects prior to the crisis. GCC initiatives rarely produced tangible results, even before 2017, because their primary function was at the rhetorical level for Gulf Arab rulers, providing them with narratives of apparent regional unity rather than with concrete instruments of cooperation.

GULF RECONCILIATION AND ITS IMPACT ON THE CONFLICT IN YEMEN

This study examined the impact of Gulf States reconciliation on the conflict in Yemen. The Gulf crisis that led to the blockade of Qatar from 2017 until 2021 had a severe negative impact on the Gulf military intervention in Yemen, known as Decisive Storm. The Houthi militia supported by Iran invested The Gulf States dispute to defeat the Gulf military intervention in Yemen. Accordingly, the Houthi controls the Yemeni Capital and most of the densely populated cities in the country. Contrary to what was expected, the Gulf reconciliation had no significant effect on resolving the conflict and restoring stability to Yemen. In fact, this study shows that the Yemeni conflict is no longer local as much as it became regional. It is clear that the failure of the Arab coalition in Yemen was due to the American intervention directly after the Decisive Storm being launched. The U.S. diverted the course of the Decisive Storm to serve its strategy in Yemen on the expense of the required peace. The study concluded that the conditions and policies of the Gulf States in the Yemeni crisis fall within and are affected by the conflicts of international and regional axes in the region. The Gulf States are not independent actors in this conflict. Key words: Military Intervention, Gulf Reconciliation, Yemen.

كلمة العدد (الإنجليزي)

The seventeenth issue of the Journal of Educational Sciences (JES) is published at a time we bid farewell to a tough year which has affected health, society, economy and the academic field. We welcome a new year, with encouraging signs of the start of the availability of a vaccine for the "Covid-19" virus, and of the positive echoes of the Gulf reconciliation. The Journal of Educational Sciences - as usual - continues to search for the best quality, accurate and diversified researches. This issue includes seven diverse educational researches, covering multiple fields, such as education principles, measurement and statistics, parenting, mental health, educational leadership, mathematics education, and science education. More specifically, this issue includes a paper entitled “The Role of Values Awareness in the Immunization against the Qatar Blockade Crisis”. The second research deals with “The Factor Structure of the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale among School Students and University Students in Oman”. The third research discusses "Parenting Styles - a comparative study between Omani and Saudi female students". The fourth research also investigates “Resilience and Quality of Work Life among Academic Faculties in Gulf Countries (Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Oman)”. The fifth paper studies "Strategic leadership as an approach to developing school principals' performance in the Sultanate of Oman”. The sixth paper deals with "Diagnostic accuracy of mathematics Concept and Application Curriculum based Measures in Screening Fourth Grade Students at Risk for Mathematical Learning Disabilities". The seventh and last research investigates “The Level of Experienced Omani Teachers’ Reflective Judgment of Scientific Knowledge and the Mechanisms of Justifying this Knowledge". I would like to thank everyone who contributed to producing this issue, including researchers, peer-reviewers, members of the editorial board and the journal’s secretariat, for all their efforts and dedication. We always look forward that the Journal of Educational Sciences remains - as it has always been - a distinguished educational journal, which can be trusted for its scope and quality.

The Role of Values Awareness in the immunization against the Qatar Blockade Crisis

هدفت الدراسة إلى التعرف على دور الوعي بالقيم في تحصين أفراد العينة ضد أزمة الحصار على قطر. وقد استخدمت الدراسة المنهج الوصفي، كما تم استخدام استبانة مكونة من ثمانية محاور، هي؛ محور القيم الدينية، ومحور القيم الأسرية، ومحور القيم الاجتماعية، ومحور القيم العلمية، ومحور القيم السياسية، ومحور القيم الاقتصادية، ومحور القيم الصحية، ومحور القيم الإنسانية. وقد تم تطبيق الاستبانة على عينة عشوائية تكونت من 3597 مفردة من الطلاب، وأعضاء هيئة التدريس، والإداريين في جامعة قطر. ومن أهم النتائج التي توصلت إليها الدراسة الميدانية أن درجة وعي منتسبي جامعة قطر بالقيم في أزمة حصار قطر كانت عالية في جميع أبعاد الدراسة.

Mediation in Qatar Blockade in the light of Regional and International Law

يعد حصار قطر مشكلة مختلفة بإجراءاتها وأسبابها ودوافعها وتطوراتها؛ حيث لم يسبق أن شهد مجلس التعاون مشكلات مماثلة. وقد استند الحصار إلى ثلاثة افتراضات أساسية، وهي؛ الدعم الأمريكي، بقيادة الرئيس دونالد ترامب. ودعم الرأي العام المحلي. وقدرة الضغط القوي والمفاجئ على تغيير سلوك الدوحة بالقوة. ويمكن أن نؤكد أن سلوك دول الحصار مناقض للقوانين والمواثيق الدولية، على عكس مواقف الدوحة التي تمارس حقها في الحماية الدبلوماسية لمواطنيها. وقد كانت المواقف الإقليمية والعربية والدولية – باستثناء دول الحصار – مؤيدة لقطر، كما كان لاستجابة قطر السريعة في استيعاب واحتواء آثار الحصار الناجم عن الأزمة أثر كبير في تغيير تصورات دول الحصار عن إمكانية حل الأزمة كرهًا، أو طوعًا. وتتمثل إشكالية الدراسة في تحديد طبيعة، وأهمية، وجدوى جهود الوساطة، في ضوء المواقف المختلفة التي تبنتها الدول مع بيان آثار الحصار على واقع، ومستقبل مجلس التعاون في ضوء آفاق الحل المستقبلي.

The Role of Peaceful Means to Solve Political Crisis: The Case of Qatar Blockade: الوسائل الودية لحل المشكلات والأزمات السياسية: أزمة حصار قطر كنموذج

The current research investigates the role of amicable means in resolving the political crisis in case of Qatar blockade. The key objective of the research is to review and evaluate the role of international and regional efforts in resolving the political crisis in case of Qatar blockade. The descriptive historical methodology was used in the research. Results showed that amicable means are the most suitable means of resolving the regional crisis and conflicts in GCC. It was found that regional efforts are better than international efforts in resolving crisis. Based on that, it is recommended that GCC states should cooperate to resolve their conflicts and crisis.

Did the Qatar Blockade Work? Evidence from Trade and Consumer Welfare Three Years after the Blockade

This article examines the effects of the embargo (blockade) imposed on Qatar in June 2017 by four countries: Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, and Bahrain. Using highly disaggregated product-destination quarterly trade datasets provided by the Qatar General Authority of Customs, we find a significant decline in Qatar’s aggregate imports and consumer welfare (with an increase in the prices of imported goods) in the short run, but not thereafter. Political relations with non-besieging countries seem to be associated with Qatar’s bilateral trade after the blockade, particularly in the first quarter. Shortly after the blockade, countries opposing the blockade experienced a sizable growth in exports to Qatar. In the medium to long run, Qatar succeeded in mitigating the impact of the blockade by diversifying its import origins and adopting new reforms to stabilize the economy and enhance the country’s food security and self-sufficiency.

The al-Ula GCC Summit: An End to Gulf Rivalry or Mere Truce?

Three-and-a-half-years into the crisis that struck the heart of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), the 41st Gulf Summit, held on January 5, 2021, in the Saudi city of al-Ula, brought the blockade of Qatar to an end. The summits final communiqué stated that the GCC member states will “stand together as one to confront any threat to the security of the block” and prevent any “violation of sovereignty of any member state.”1 According to the Saudi Foreign Minister, Faisal bin Farhan, “points of disagreement with Qatar have been solved.”2 The Saudi minister declined to give more details on the compromises the two sides may have agreed on and the timeframe for their implementation. Lack of enthusiasm in the state-owned media on both sides of the fence suggests, however, that the agreement will merely return the relationship between the parties to the pre-June 5, 2017 position. So far, the two sides blame COVID-19 for ‘social distancing.’ Trade has not been fully resumed and cross-borders movement of goods and peoples remain low. It is assumed that cold peace is likely to prevail until the two sides re-establish mutual trust, which was badly damaged, especially at the level of the heads of states.

The Unbridgeable Gulf: Applying Bennett’s Model of Analysis to the 2017 Gulf Crisis

ABSTRACT While the Gulf States have been involved in several conflicts since the formation of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) in 1981, the recent crisis between Qatar and the self-proclaimed, Saudi-led ‘Quartet’ nations (Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Egypt) has been the most severe internal conflict among the Gulf States for decades. The aim of this paper is to provide an in-depth analysis of the nature, causes, and future of the intra-Gulf conflict through the lens of the nearly four-year blockade of Qatar. The paper appropriates a model of analysis developed by William Bennett in order to assess inter-state conflict in the Arabian Gulf region. Using Bennett’s model, this paper explains how the blockade of Qatar is a product of Saudi Arabia’s hegemonic ambitions. As Bennett’s model argues that political conflicts result from the perpetual imbalance of supply and demand of resources, thus proving that political conflicts are insoluble, regional hegemony is identified as the defining political resource perpetuating conflict between Qatar and Saudi Arabia. As the Al-Ula agreement signed in January 2021 did not fully resolve the roots of this fight for hegemony, this is only a temporary solution to the conflict between Qatar and Saudi Arabia.

USE OF FORCE OR DIPLOMATIC INTERVENTION: ASSESSING THE BLOCKADE OF QATAR

The coordinated blockade of the State of Qatar by some of its neighbours in June 2017 has raised questions on the sovereignty of the state and the extent to which coercion is allowed in international law. This article considers the reasons behind the blockade and the subsequent demands by Qatar’s neighbours. It evaluates the blockade of Qatar based on the twin principles of international law: the prohibition on the use of force and non-interference in the internal affairs of other nations. The article argues that the language of article 2 (4), read together with the purposes of the United Nations (UN), render any forcible attempt to coerce a sovereign state into surrendering its sovereignty illegal. The article also considers the debate on whether economic and political coercion amounts to force. It submits that the coordinated blockade and the subsequent “13 points” demands threaten Qatar’s sovereignty, because the blockade contravenes the purposes of the UN. The article also argues that the blockade amounts to an interference in the internal affairs of Qatar, even if economic or political coercion are not considered as force. The article finds that the blockade does not categorically amount to a threat or use of force; but it certainly violates the principle of non-intervention as enshrined in the UN Charter.

Society and State in Post-Blockade Qatar: Lessons for the Arab Gulf Region

This article examines key questions of citizen-state, citizen-citizen, and citizen-expatriate relations in the Arab Gulf states through the lens of the 2017 Qatar blockade. It utilizes original public opinion survey data that allow examination of the embargo’s short-term impacts on social and political relations in Qatar as well as broader trends observed over the period from 2010 to 2019. Results lend support to some existing qualitative accounts suggesting changes in important social and political dynamics in Qatar after the blockade. However, survey data also show that such post-blockade differences are mostly reflections of larger attitudinal shifts witnessed over the course of the past decade, rather than isolated effects of the GCC crisis. This suggests the possibility that other Gulf Arab states are experiencing similar transformations in popular sociopolitical orientations and behavior brought on by the same long-term drivers.

European Policies Towards the Gulf: Patterns, Dynamics, Evolution, and the case of the Qatar Blockade

This paper discusses European policies towards the Qatar crisis in the context of the evolution of broader past and present European policies towards the Gulf. It starts with a summary discussion of historical patterns of relations between Europe and the Gulf, before briefly sketching the major changes in the regional environment after the Second World War, beginning with the US supplanting the UK as the dominant hegemon, through to the changes wrought by Trump’s elevation to the US presidency. It then turns to a discussion of the effects of these changes for the Gulf and other regional states and their policy postures, before going on to examine the ways in which European states and the EU have interpreted and reacted to this changing environment. These reactions are often at one and the same time a reaction to the changes and uncertainties in US policy under Trump, since this changing US role is also a crucial ingredient both in the region and for Europe’s room for manoeuvre. Against this background, the paper will outline European policies towards the Gulf theater in particular, focusing on Iran and the JCPOA nuclear deal, and the GCC (or Qatar) crisis –– while also briefly considering the Yemen crisis and the impact of Gulf competition on and in the Libyan theater. From October 2018, the Khashoggi affair added an additional dimension to the crisis, as did the renewed oil price crash amidst the global COVID-19 pandemic beginning in 2020.

Sino-Qatari Relations after the ‘Qatar Blockade’ in the Context of the Regional Implementation of the Belt and Road Initiative

The article examines the development of the relations between China and Qatar since the ‘Qatar blockade’ in June 2017. Both Qatar and China view themselves as strategic partners and their relations are developing on the diplomatic and political level as well as in the field of economy and finances regardless of the ‘Qatar blockade’ and Qatar’s subsequent regional isolation. The article explains that since the introduction of the Chinese Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in 2013, the mutual relations of these two countries have been to an extent influenced by this initiative and Qatar has played an important role in Chinese BRI implementation in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). Nevertheless, Qatar’s relations with other Gulf states and the US place some limitations on the potential for Sino-Qatari cooperation within the framework of the BRI. The article argues that despite the regional isolation following the ‘Qatar blockade’ in June 2017, China and Qatar maintain good relations and continue to cooperate under the BRI framework in politics, economy, energy, military and culture.

Effect of Qatar diplomatic and economic isolation on Qatar stock market volatility: an event study approach

ABSTRACT In this study we assess the impact of the political and economic blockade of Qatar, as well as four other events related to the blockade on Qatar’s stock market volatility. One of these events occurred before the June 5 2017 blockade while the others occurred after. We use volatility event-study approach to test the abnormal unsystematic volatility in stock returns. We reveal that stock market volatility has reacted significantly to the blockade as well as to other related events that happened before and after the blockade. Our findings highlight the importance of continuing, and even bolstering, the ongoing mediation efforts to reduce the risk of a resurgence of hostilities. As there is no resolution yet, there is still a risk of future market volatility and thus changes in portfolio allocation and investment decisions not only in Qatar but also in the GCC.

Stock market dependence in crisis periods: Evidence from oil price shocks and the Qatar blockade

This paper examines the correlation and the dependence patterns of the Qatar stock market with other markets using copula statistical theory and exploiting new datasets covering the period August 1998 to June 2018. To examine the crisis –specific change in the average degree of dependence we decomposed the data into the time periods before and after oil price shocks and the 2017 political crisis among the Gulf Cooperation Council members (i.e. the Qatari blockade). Our findings from the static copula modelling show that the correlations between the Qatari and the other stock markets significantly change after the oil price and the blockade crisis as well. The degree of change in the correlation is time varying and differs from county-group to another. Moreover, our findings reveals that the 2008 global financial crisis has a stronger impact than the price shocks and political crisis. The findings of the paper are of interest and allow for formulating a reliable and dynamic portfolio design framework for investors and risk managers.

The implications of the Qatar blockade imposed on Qatar on family

يناقش هذا البحث أثر حصار قطر على الأسرة القطرية. فقد خرقت دول الحصار العديد من الاتفاقيات والأدوات الدولية التي تتعلق بلمّ الشمل الأسري، والتي تؤكد على الحق في الحياة الأسرية وعدم الفصل بين أفراد الأسرة الواحدة؛ لما في ذلك من آثار سلبية على الأسرة باعتبارها خليّة أساسية في بناء المجتمع، وعلى الطفل –  الطرف الضعيف في الأسرة – الذي يتوجب حمايته وعدم فصله عن أسرته. كما أكدت على ذلك الاتفاقية الأممية لحقوق الطفل، والتي صدَّقت عليها دولة قطر والدول المحاصرة لها، بالإضافة إلى أنّ تداعيات الحصار ألقت بظلالها على مسألة الجنسية في الأسرة الواحدة عند الزواج المختلط وما ترتب عنه من آثار فرقت بين الزوجين، أو أحد الأبوين وأبنائه.