The World Cup: A Mixed Blessing for Qatari Soft Power
Review Article by James M. Dorsey
Qatar and the 2022 FIFA World Cup: Politics, Controversy,
Change, by Paul Michael Brannagan and Danyel Reiche. Cham, Switzerland:
Palgrave Macmillan, 2022. 186 pages.$49.99 cloth; $39.99 e-book.
The glass should have been more than half full rather than
half empty. But, with a little help from its friends, Qatar has proven to be
its own worst enemy in the court of public opinion. Qatari “soft power”
setbacks loom large despite the United States’ praise for the Gulf state’s help
in the bungled US withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021 and its willingness
to work with Europe to help the continent wean itself off Russian energy.
Qatar’s ability to mitigate the impact of an almost four-year-long economic and
diplomatic boycott led by the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia further
garnered it sympathy as the underdog, especially because acceptance of the two
states’ demands would have stripped it of its sovereignty.[1]
Moreover, Qatar has taken significant steps to address the
concerns of human rights and labor organizations, even though it has yet to
meet international standards, and enforcement problems remain. The country has
liberalized its kafala labor regime, which left the foreign workers who
constitute most of the population at the mercy of their employers; introduced
the region’s first minimum income wage; enhanced workers’ rights; and improved
working conditions.
Nevertheless, worker, gender, and human rights, together
with alleged Qatari ties to Islamists and jihadists, have continued to dominate
media reporting in the final stretch leading up to the 2022 World Cup in Doha.
The reporting is the result of an explosive mix: legitimate concerns and
demands put forward by human rights groups that see the final sprint as an
opportunity to advance them; a greater willingness by Qatari and conservative
Muslim athletes and sports entities to push back against liberal concerns —
particularly the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and
other sexual communities (LGBTQ+) — laid bare by Qatar’s hosting of the World
Cup; Qatar’s failure to put the horse in front of the cart in anticipating and
responding to concerns such as hotel access for LGBTQ+ fans; and continued,
primarily Emirati, effort to covertly muddy Qatar’s water through a well-funded
media and influence campaign that sought to exacerbate the Gulf state’s
dilemmas.[2]
To read further, please download the article at https://doi.org/10.3751/76.2.30
[1] Frida
Ghitis, “Qatar Has Officially Come Back in from the Cold,” World Politics Review,
February 3, 2022, www.worldpoliticsreview.com/articles/30295.
[2] .
David D. Kirkpatrick and Sheera Frenkel, “Hacking in Qatar Highlights a Shift
toward Espionage-for-Hire,” New York Times, June 8, 2017,
https://nyti.ms/3NtO32i; Ryan Grim and Brian Walsh, “Leaked Documents Expose
Stunning Plan to Wage Financial War on Qatar — and Steal the World Cup,” The
Intercept, November 8, 2017, https://interc.pt/2AvXkl1
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