Islam Hassan

The family in Qatar plays a significant role in shaping its members’ lives, passing down the dominant culture with its history, traditions, values, customs, and social order to subsequent generations. Through the institution of marriage, individuals have been choosing their partners based on criteria passed down to them by their families. They have also been preserving and reproducing the culture, traditions, values, and customs invested in them by their own families by reinvesting them into their own children. By relying on a mixed method approach, the author investigates the role of the family and marriage institutions in the sustenance and stimulation of the reproduction of social stratification in Qatari society. This article is the first of its kind to address the phenomenon of reproduction of social stratification in an Arab state of the Persian Gulf.

This chapter examines the question of how the ruling family proactively continues to consolidate its own position within Qatari society some 165 years after first coming to power. The state adopts three primary means to reproduce and stimulate the existing inclusion and exclusion schemes in Qatari society. First, it promotes the dominant Arab social values, culture, traditions, and customs that perpetuate a scheme of inclusion and exclusion, and secure the position of the ruling family and Arab tribal social actors at the apex of the social hierarchy of the state. Second, it narrows down the definition of national identity in order to limit vertical social mobility in society only to certain tribal families. In doing so, the state has limited the official narrative of homeland, common myths, and historical memories to being of an Arab tribal origin and practicing the Wahhabi version of Sunni Islam. Third, through articles of the constitution, the legal system and implicit family policies related to marriage and nationality, the state has been influencing individuals, insofar as marriage choices are concerned, as a further means of preventing social mobility to a wider strata of society. In investigating the question at hand, a qualitative methods approach is adopted that analyzes primary and secondary sources such as the constitution of the State of Qatar, Qatar’s Family Law, and government documents. The paper argues that some articles of the constitution and legal code, symbols, and official history of Qatar made this systematic maintenance and stimulation of the Qatari social order possible. This, in turn, has secured the position of the ruling monarchy—and its Arab tribal allies—at the apex of the social pyramid in Qatari society.

The crisis symbolised by the withdrawal from Doha of the ambassadors of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the Kingdom of Bahrain in March, 2014, was the first of its kind since the establishment of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), and therefore set a precedent in terms of dispute resolution between the six member states. The disagreement that sparked the ambassadors’ withdrawal was among the most serious in recent years, and threatened to seriously undermine relations between the GCC states. The crisis certainly affected the GCC negatively at first – raising questions among member states, revealing shifts in their political agendas, and changing the balance of power in the region to some extent.
This chapter discusses causes of the crisis, and a review of its development and eventual resolution with the signing of the Riyadh Supplementary Agreement on 16 November 2014. This chapter suggests that the crisis will continue to affect the GCC in future. While the immediate crisis has passed, the loss of trust between the GCC states is likely to take some time to resolve. Nevertheless, the resolutions that emerged from the 35th GCC summit held in Doha on 9 December 2014 indicate a kind of convergence in understanding among the GCC countries on a number of regional issues. This convergence was arrived at in the context of various regional pressures on the member states and the Gulf region as a whole, stemming particularly from concerns around the emergence of the Islamic State and Iran’s nuclear programme. Finally, the chapter argues that resolution of the crisis is indicative of the maturity of the GCC states, and reflects their ability to focus on prioritising their own local interests. In the longer term, it seems likely that this maturity will enhance integration and strengthen the GCC.

مثَّلت أزمة سحب كل من المملكة العربية السعودية ودولة الإمارات العربية المتحدة ومملكة البحرين لسفرائها من الدوحة، وهو الحدث الأول من نوعه على مرِّ تاريخ مجلس التعاون الخليجي منذ نشأته، علامة فارقة في طبيعة الخلافات بين دول مجلس التعاون الخليجي الست.

ويعدُّ هذا الخلاف من أهمِّ الخلافات التي عصفت بالمنطقة في السنوات الأخيرة، وكاد يُهدِّد العمل الخليجي المشترك، ويُؤثِّر سلبيًّا على منظومة دول مجلس التعاون؛ بما أثاره من تساؤلات طرحها في أروقة البيت الخليجي، وتحولات في الأجندة السياسية، وتغيُّرات في موازين القوى في المنطقة.

تناقش هذه الورقة أسباب هذه الأزمة الخليجية التي نشبت في مارس/آذار 2014، وتستعرض قضاياها، وتطوراتها، وصولاً إلى تجاوزها بعودة السفراء إلى الدوحة، بعد أن وقَّعت دولة قطر اتفاق الرياض التكميلي في 16 نوفمبر/تشرين الثاني 2014.

ويصل الباحث إلى نتيجة مفادها أن الآثار المستقبلية لهذه الأزمة على مسيرة التعاون الخليجي تظل باقية، منوهًا إلى أنه ربما تكون أزمة سحب السفراء قد انتهت، ولكن ستبقى هناك أزمة ثقة بين دول مجلس التعاون.

وتنوه الورقة أيضًا إلى أنه رغم ذلك، فإنَّ قرارات القمَّة الخليجية المختصرة التي عُقدت في الدوحة في 9 ديسمبر/ كانون الأول 2014 تشير إلى حدوث بعض التقارب والتفاهم في عدد من الملفات الإقليمية بين دول المجلس، تحت ضغوطات المرحلة، وخاصة التحديات الراهنة المتمثِّلة في المخاوف الأمنية من الإرهاب والنووي الإيراني.

وتبين أنه يجب أن يُؤخذ بعين الاعتبار النضج الواضح للسياسة الخليجية في الآونة الأخيرة، والذي يتجلَّى في مواقفها الخارجية، ومساعيها وراء مصالحها المحلية، مؤكدة أن هذا النضج سيعزِّز عاجلاً أو آجلاً مفهوم الاندماج، ويُوحِّد من المصالح والمواقف الخليجية الخارجية.