International Relations and Faith-based Diplomacy: The Case of Qatar

Abstract

This article looks at the role that faith-based diplomacy has come to play in Qatar's diplomatic relationship with the West, and the U.S. in particular. Situating the case of Qatar in the context of wide-ranging Muslim efforts to address the theme of interfaith on the world stage, I argue that in a post-9/11 geopolitical climate, faith-based diplomacy in general and interfaith dialogue in particular are best understood in terms of a broader politics of representation. This article contributes to the typically Western-centric and Christian leaning literature by offering an account of the place of faith-based diplomacy in the foreign policy of a Muslim-majority country.

Keywords:

• International relations
• faith-based diplomacy
• interfaith dialogue
• Qatar

ORCID

John Fahy http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7669-4913

Notes

1 Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2017/03/17/qataris-london-queen/.

2 The term “Muslim world” is not unproblematic (see Aydin 2017). Following Jeffery Haynes (in this issue), the term refers broadly to the ummah (a transnational community of Muslims that share religious, cultural and civilizational characteristics).

3 Source: https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2011/11/the-richest-fattest-nation-on-earth-its-not-the-united-states/248366/.

4 Source: https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2013-05-02/qatar-attention-starved-teen-of-the-middle-east.

5 Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/25/opinion/qatar-club-med-for-terrorists.html.

6 Source: http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/09/03/katrina.world.aid/.

7 Source: https://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2016/08/qatar-quadruples-pr-spending.html.

8 Source: https://www.brookings.edu/events/2004-u-s-islamic-world-forum/.

9 Source: https://www.brookings.edu/about-the-u-s-islamic-world-forum/.

10 Source: http://www.qatarconferences.org/about-us.html.

11 Qatar National Vision, p. 209-210. Source: https://www.mdps.gov.qa/en/qnv1/pages/default.aspx.

12 Qatar National Vision, p. 23.

13 Source: https://www.unaoc.org/who-we-are/.

14 Source: http://www.gulf-times.com/story/430409/Qatar-committed-to-freedom-of-religion.

15 Source: https://thepeninsulaqatar.com/article/08/12/2016/Minister-chairs-Qatar-delegation-to-Ninth-Bali-Democracy-Forum.

16 In 1989, in response to the publication of The Satanic Verses, Ayatollah Khomeini in Iran issued a fatwa calling for the death of author Salman Rushdie on charges of blasphemy. This incident catalyzed wide-ranging debates about Islam and modernity.

17 Source: https://www.isesco.org.ma/.

18 Source: http://www.aalalbayt.org/en/index.html.

19 Source: https://www.oic-oci.org/page/?p_id=53&p_ref=27&lan=en.

Additional information

Funding

This research was made possible by NPRP [grant number #7-585-6-020] from the Qatar National Research Fund (a member of Qatar Foundation). The statements made herein are solely the responsibility of the author.

Notes on contributors

John Fahy

John Fahy is a Research Fellow at Georgetown University, Qatar and the Woolf Institute, Cambridge, where he leads a comparative project that focuses on interfaith initiatives in Delhi, Doha and London.