This book addresses critical topics and unanswered questions on the contemporary state of Qatar. Drawing together a unique combination of authors that have researched the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) in general, and the state of Qatar specifically, each author provides an in-depth empirical analysis of Qatar’s current social, political, and economic landscape against a historically informed backdrop. Cognizant of its rapid state of flux, the contributors collectively provide a comprehensive overview of the intersection of these respective areas, delving into the historical creation of Qatar as a state, its politics and systems of governance, its economic strata and reliance on natural resources, its society and national identity, its new and thriving sports culture, and, most topically, matters of diplomacy, the 2017 blockade, and its armed forces. Owing to the contributors’ invaluable firsthand experience and knowledge of Qatar, this book provides valuable insights into this nation, at once old and new, and its intertwined trajectories in its socio-political and economic positionality within the region. This book is an invaluable resource for students and scholars researching the Middle East generally, and the Gulf, specifically, with interests in topics such as politics and international relations, political economy and foreign policy, development, sources of social change, societal activism, popular culture, and the various elements of identity.

In this groundbreaking history of modern Qatar, Allen J. Fromherz analyzes Qatar's crucial role in the Middle East and its growing regional influence within a broader historical context.

The Persian Gulf state of Qatar has fewer than 2 million inhabitants, virtually no potable water, and has been an independent nation only since 1971. Yet its enormous oil and gas wealth has permitted the ruling al Thani family to exert a disproportionately large influence on regional and even international politics. Qatar is, as Mehran Kamrava explains in this knowledgeable and incisive account of the emirate, a "tiny giant": although severely lacking in most measures of state power, it is highly influential in diplomatic, cultural, and economic spheres. Kamrava presents Qatar as an experimental country, building a new society while exerting what he calls "subtle power." It is both the headquarters of the global media network Al Jazeera and the site of the U.S. Central Command's Forward Headquarters and the Combined Air Operations Center. Qatar has been a major player during the European financial crisis, it has become a showplace for renowned architects, several U.S. universities have established campuses there, and it will host the FIFA World Cup in 2022. Qatar's effective use of its subtle power, Kamrava argues, challenges how we understand the role of small states in the global system. Given the Gulf state's outsized influence on regional and international affairs, this book is a critical and timely account of contemporary Qatari politics and society.

Qatar and the Arab Spring offers a frank examination of Qatar's startling rise to regional and international prominence, describing how its distinctive policy stance toward the Arab Spring emerged. In only a decade, Qatari policy-makers - led by the Emir, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani, and his prime minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim Al-Thani - catapulted Qatar from a sleepy backwater to a regional power with truly international reach. In addition to pursuing an aggressive state-branding strategy with its successful bid for the 2022 FIFA World Cup, Qatar forged a reputation for diplomatic mediation that combined intensely personalized engagement with financial backing and favorable media coverage through the Al-Jazeera. These factors converged in early 2011 with the outbreak of the Arab Spring revolts in North Africa, Syria, and Yemen, which Qatari leaders saw as an opportunity to seal their regional and international influence, rather than as a challenge to their authority, and this guided their support of the rebellions against the Gaddafi and Assad regimes in Libya and Syria. From the high watermark of Qatari influence after the toppling of Gaddafi in 2011, that rapidly gave way to policy overreach in Syria in 2012, Coates Ulrichsen analyses Qatari ambition and capabilities as the tiny emirate sought to shape the transitions in the Arab world.

As the bearers of the next generation in one of the richest countries in the world, the social status of Qatari women is closely linked to their ability to have children. Women are expected to reflect the cultural and religious values attached to motherhood, and not having children puts women in a potentially vulnerable position. But Qatari women must also play an essential role in reflecting the country as a centre of Arab modernity, availing themselves of the new opportunities in work, politics and public life. This book explores the changing role of women in Qatari society and analyses how Qatari women navigate the competing expectations placed upon them. Based on original interviews with pregnant women and women who have experienced miscarriage - as well as interviews with doctors, religious scholars and family members - the book reveals how socio-cultural forces shape the way miscarriage is framed and experienced. It also reveals how intimate reproductive events are deeply entangled with broader societal and political issues. In exploring the themes of reproduction, motherhood and family relationships, this unique study sheds light on the values and beliefs circulating in Qatari society and how these are mapped on to women's bodies.

Part IV. Approaches to understanding the relationship between migration and health.The relevance of culture for migrant health /Tilman Lanz --The sociology of migration and health : the decline in migrants' health due to adverse environments and limited options for care /Steven J. Gold --Economics in migrant health : migrant-sensitive service improvement as a driver for cost savings in health care? /Ursula Trummer, Lika Nusbaum, and Sonja Novak-Zezula --Multilevel and mixed-methods studies of migration and health /Joshua Breslau and Lilian G. Perez -- Epidemiology and the study of migrant health / Nadia N. Abuelezam -- The humanities of migration and health / Carrie J. Preston -- Law, migration, and health in the US context / Sondra S. Crosby, Michael R. Ulrich, and George J. Annas --Migration : a health-equity lens /Felicity Thomas --Part V. Case studies in migration and health.The United States as a case study : policy, access, and outcomes /Sana Loue --Eastern Mediterranean and Balkan migration route /Karl Philipp Puchner --Migration and health in Nepal /Sabrina Hermosilla, Emily Treleaven, and Dirgha Ghimire --Persian Gulf migrants /Maria Kristiansen --South Africa /Jo Vearey --Migration and health in China /Bingqin Li --Asian immigrants in New Zealand /Eleanor Holroyd and Jed Montayre --Mobility and health in the Pacific Islands /Celia McMichael --Venezuela and Latin America /Oscar A. Bernal Acevedo, Jovana A. Ocampo Cañas, Jhon Sebastian Patiño Rueda, Laura Baldovino-Chiquillo, and Salma S. Baizer Cassab --The South Asian context /Muhammad H. Zaman, Reshmaan Hussam, and Hulya Kosematoglu --Part VI. The future of migration and health.Preparing the next generation of scholars in migrant health /Zelde Espinel and James M. Shultz --Migration and health : taking stock and looking to the future /Muhammad H. Zaman, Catherine K. Ettman, and Sandro Galea.

Over the decades, there has been a world-wide transformation of so-called ‘vernacular houses’. Based on ethnographic accounts from different regions, Houses Transformed investigates the changing practices of building houses in a transnational context. It explores the intersection of house biographies and social change, the politics of housing design, the social fabrication of aspirational houses, the domestication of concrete and the intersection of materiality and ontology as well as the rhetoric of the vernacular. The volume provides new anthropological pathways to understanding the dynamics of dwelling in the 21st century.