Zoheir Al Mokh, an Iraqi international relations expert, was the
guest speaker at the ACRPS weekly academic seminar on Wednesday, 20 December.
Al Mokh’s presentation focused on the “Cultural Dimension of the Gulf Crisis”.
One remarkable feature of the 2017 Gulf crisis, said Al Mokh, was the
unprecedented involvement of what could only be called “cultural features” into
the conflict between member states of the GCC. Al Mokh recounted how the first
decade of the third millennium were a period when Qatari leaders could dream of
turning Doha into a new power base capable of competing with other regional
capitals.
Said Al Mokh, some of the policies adopted by Qatar in pursuance
of this ambition included Doha’s willingness to engage in (often informal)
alliances with actors and networks which often transcended boundaries. Often,
the willingness of the Qatari government to build these alliances was unrelated
to economic or strategic objectives, but rather formed a part of what could be
called the “identity politics” played by Qatar. The “capital” which Qatar
accrued in this way, said the speaker, was more important at this stage of history
than traditional military prowess or geostrategic vantage points when influencing
regional affairs. In building its network of informal alliances with non-state
actors, Qatar was reaffirming its position within an (Arab) cultural sphere. As
a result of its alliances, Qatar was able to leverage its power to become a
mediator in domestic political disputes across the Middle East region.
One crucial and highly visible step which the country took in the
furtherance of its cultural influence was the establishment of the Al
Jazeera broadcasting network. Through it, Qatar was able to break out of
the straitjacket imposed on media discourse by Saudi Arabia, which had earlier
been unable to create a media climate; Al Jazeera was in fact “totally novel”
in the Arab region, offering a uniquely insightful and revolutionary approach to
press freedom. Finally, said the speaker, Doha was able to leverage Al Jazeera
and the rest of its cultural capital in overcoming the “sectarian fissures”
which had provided the fuel for a long-running “cold war” between Iran and
Saudi Arabia. Instead, said Al Mokh, Qatar was using its clout in the cultural
sphere and “soft power” to further dialogue and mediation between conflicting
parties.