Qatar’s Public Diplomacy - Turning Crisis into Opportunities?
By Brian Shim Yew
“The tongue is sharper than the sword”—this saying finds striking relevance in Qatar's approach to dealing with the ramifications of the Arab Spring. While some small states in the region, like Bahrain faced existential threats from popular uprisings, others, like Qatar experienced no such protests. In fact, Qatar managed to thrive during this turbulent period. How did Qatar manage to not only navigate the crisis but use it to its advantage to advance its foreign policy objectives?
The answer: Public Diplomacy.
As the name suggests, public diplomacy seeks to inform and influence foreign publics to promote national interests and advance foreign policy goals. Unlike propaganda, which manipulates information, public diplomacy relies on transparency and credibility to build relationships and communicate with international audiences. Small states engage in public diplomacy for various reasons; to boost tourism, shape public opinion, and engage beyond their traditional influence. This allows them to punch above their weight, countering their inherent disadvantages of size and limited resources.
How did Qatar use public diplomacy to carve out opportunities for itself during the Arab Spring? The answer: Al-Jazeera. The Al-Jazeera Media Network is the cornerstone of Qatar's public diplomacy strategy. Its extensive coverage, including critical reporting on various Arabic governments, has built it a reputation amongst the Arabic public as a credible and reliable news source. The Ad Fontes chart, a media watchdog which rates media sources in terms of political bias and reliability, rates the Al-Jazeera Media Network a score of 41.48, which indicates that Al-Jazeera is generally reliable. This is comparable to other news outlets such as The Guardian, and CNN.
However, despite its claims of independence, it's widely regarded by U.S. government officials and academics as a tool for advancing Qatar's ideological and geopolitical agenda, relying on its credible reputation to operate as an instrument of the Qatari state. The U.S. Department of Justice's classification of it as a foreign agent in 2020 underscores its perception that it operates as an instrument of the Qatari state.
As a small state in a volatile region of conflict, Qatar uses Al-Jazeera as part of their foreign policy to increase its international relevance, amplifying its voice on the international stage. Through Al-Jazeera, Qatar successfully shaped narratives of protest, fueling the flames of the Arab Spring revolution. Initially cautious, the Qatari leadership chose to embrace the wave of change, setting itself apart from other states in the region. Internationally, the Qatari government positioned itself as the West’s ally in the Arab world, by pushing for humanitarian intervention in Libya and political settlement in Yemen. Regionally, Qatar backed Islamist movements, aligning with Qatar's long-term practice of offering refuge to political dissidents from across the Arab world. Qatari regional policy calculations were pragmatic, as it allowed Qatar to cultivate connections to many of the opposition leaders who were poised to play leading roles in many of the Arabic countries, thus allowing Qatar to be situated as a place of mediation amongst the instability of the Arab world. However, this approach faced significant blowback when other Arab states, angered by Qatar's policies, launched a blockade in 2017 that led to a diplomatic crisis.
Al-Jazeera Arabic’s initial coverage on Mohamed Bouazizi’s self-immolation in Tunisia was the catalyst for further protests, marking the beginning of the Arab Spring. In response to the subsequent Tunisian government’s ban, the network intensified its coverage, amplifying public sentiments. Their transition to a continuous news cycle that gave coverage to citizen journalists had a tremendous impact in fanning the flames of revolutions, as Al-Jazeera stood as the one of the only news source covering these events. Its use of religious language to describe martyrs was a powerful uniting narrative, portraying a notion of common struggle across the Arab world against the authoritative governments.
The Qatari government also used Al-Jazeera during the Arab Spring to bolster its regional influence, positioning itself as a mediator among opposing factions. Leveraging on ties to Islamist forces like the Muslim Brotherhood, Qatar backed and harbored Islamist forces in Libya and Syria. It used Al-Jazeera to advance and twist narratives surrounding groups fighting against governments. For instance, journalists in Al-Jazeera were instructed to stop associating Qatar-backed al-Nusra Front in Syria as Al-Qaeda, due to the associated negative connotation. This allowed Qatar to position itself as an attractive platform for negotiation between the different belligerents, increasing its status as an active mediator in regional conflicts.
While scholars may indeed be divided on the exact impact of Al-Jazeera, the network had clearly shaped public discourse and influenced perceptions globally. Despite the rise of new media, Al-Jazeera managed to maintain a disproportionate amount of influence in the Middle East and beyond, challenging local governments’ and Western media corporations' hegemony.
So, what can we learn?
Firstly, Qatar's use of public diplomacy emphasizes the importance of framing and controlling the narrative, especially for small states. The term “Al-Jazeera Effect” is a testament to the importance of soft power and narrative control in foreign policy, demonstrating the increasing relevance of new media in international relations.
Secondly, this episode emphasizes the importance of relationship-building with audiences. In a world where trust and credibility are increasingly valued, Qatar's efforts to cultivate trust and credibility through public diplomacy initiatives like Al-Jazeera in the decades before the Arab Spring were pivotal in garnering support and shaping perceptions both regionally and globally. This underscores the need for states to invest in building strong, meaningful relationships with their audiences to effectively promote their interests on the global platform.
Qatar's use of Al-Jazeera during the Arab Spring highlights the crucial role of public diplomacy in shaping narratives and advancing national interests. In an increasingly unstable world order, it is essential for small states to harness strategic communication for conflict resolution to navigate the complexities of the information era. The failure of the Saudi-led blockade on Qatar (2017-2021) testifies to the potency of words over force, as Qatar effectively countered the blockade's economic and diplomatic pressures through skillful narrative control and diplomatic maneuvering. The tongue is indeed sharper than the sword.
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