Qatar and the world: Branding for a micro-state

Middle East Journal

Volumn 60, Issue 4, 2006, Pages 732-748

  Peterson, J E ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS; POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT; STATE BUILDING; SURVIVAL;

ASIA; EURASIA; MIDDLE EAST; QATAR;

EID: 33750894569     PISSN: 00263141     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.3751/60.4.15     Document Type: Article

References (87)

1. Al Jazeera satellite television began transmitting in November 1996 with financial help from the Qatari government, drawing many of its journalists from the disbanded BBC Arabic Service television channel. It has acquired a large Arab audience because it has aired opposition views and news and its programs have criticized most Arab governments. For this reason, it has been banned from time to time by nearly all of Qatar's immediate neighbors. See Louay Y. Bahry, "The New Arab Media Phenomenon: Qatar's Al-Jazeera." Middle EastPolicy, Vol. 8, No. 2 (June 2001), pp. 88-99;
2. Jeremy M. Sharp, "The Al-Jazeera News Network: Opportunity or Challenge for U.S. Foreign Policy in the Middle East?" U.S. Library of Congress, Congressional Research Service, CRS Report RL31889, July 23, 2003;
3. and Hugh Miles, Al-Jazeera: The Inside Story of the Arab News Channel that is Challenging the West (New York: Grove, 2005).
4. See, for example, David Vital, The Inequality of States: A Study of the Small Power in International Relations (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1967);
5. David Vital, The Survival of Small States (London: Oxford University Press, 1971);
6. and UNITAR, Small States and Territories: Status and Problems (New York: Arno Press, 1971; originally published by the United Nations, 1969).
7. J.C. Caldwell, Graham E. Harrison, and Pat Quiggin, "The Demography of Micro-States," World Development, Vol. 8 (1980), p. 953.
8. Charles E. Morrison and Astri Suhrke, Strategies of Survival: The Foreign Policy Dilemmas of Smaller Asian States (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1979).
9. Jeanne A.K. Hey, Small States in World Politics: Explaining Foreign Policy Behavior (Boulder: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2003).
10. Colin G. Clarke, and Anthony Payne, eds., Politics, Security, and Development in Small States (London: Allen and Unwin, 1987), p. ix.
11. Dana Ott, Small Is Democratic: An Examination of State Size and Democratic Development (New York: Garland, 2000), p. 16.
12. Ott, Small Is Democratic, p. 17.
13. Ott, Small Is Democratic, pp. 14-15.
14. Edward Dommen, "What is a Microstate?" in Edward Dommen and Philippe Hein, eds., States, Microstates, and Islands (London: Croom Helm, 1985), pp. 11-13.
15. Sheila Harden, ed., Small Is Dangerous: Micro States in a Macro World (London: Pinter, 1985; report of a Study Group of the David Davies Memorial Institute of International Studies), p. 9.
16. One typology then goes on to categorize small states as under 1.5 million, medium states as under 5 million, and large states as those over 5 million. Ott, Small Is Democratic, p. 18.
17. Harden, Small Is Dangerous, p. 15;
18. Dommen, "What is a Microstate?" pp. 3-4.
19. Ott, Small is Democratic.
20. Colin G. Clarke and Anthony Payne, "Conclusion," in Clarke and Payne, eds., Politics, Security, and Development in Small States (London: Allen and Unwin, 1987), p. 225.
21. Dommen, "What is a Microstate?" pp. 4-5.
22. Dommen, "What is a Microstate?" p. 5.
23. Dommen, "What is a Microstate?" pp. 6-7.
24. Dommen, "What is a Microstate?" pp. 7-9.
25. Dommen, "What is a Microstate?" pp. 1-3.
26. Harden, Small Is Dangerous, p. 51.
27. Cohen and Robin, "An Academic Perspective," in Clark and Payne, Politics in Small States, p. 203.
28. E.F. Schumacher, Small is Beautiful: Economics As If People Really Mattered (New York: Harper and Row, 1973), pp. 59-70.
29. Annette B. Fox, Power of Small States: Diplomacy in World War II (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1959), pp. 1-9;
30. Vital, The Inequality of States, p. 3;
31. and Vital, Survival of Small States, pp. 1-12.
32. Harden, Small Is Dangerous, p. 1. A more recent study disputes this idea and points out that microstates have small or, in some cases, non-existent armed forces. "Yet microstates exist in a generally supportive global milieu with a variety of regional and international resources at their disposal. This is particularly the case in terms of ensuring their international legal personality and continued independence: the determination of the international system itself, in its manifold guises, to support the sovereignty and the territorial integrity of even its smallest members."
33. Barry Bartmann, "Meeting the Needs of Microstate Security," The Round Table, No. 365 (2002), pp. 371-372.
34. Ott, Small Is Democratic, p. 93.
35. Burton Benedict, "Introduction," in Benedict, ed., Problems of Smaller Territories (London: Athlone Press, 1967, for the University Institute of Commonwealth Studies, Commonwealth Papers, No. 10), pp. 1-10.
36. See also UNITAR, Small States and Territories, pp. 148-162.
37. Mark Hong, "Small States in the United Nations," International Social Science Journal, Vol. 144 (June 1995), p. 283.
38. Paul Sutton, "Political Aspects," in Clarke and Payne, eds., Politics, Security, and Development in Small States, pp. 18-19.
39. D.P.J. Wood, "The Smaller Territories: Some Political Considerations," in Benedict, ed., Problems of Smaller Territories, p. 33.
40. Patrick J. McGowan and Klaus-Peter Gottwald, "Small States Foreign Policies: A Comparative Study of Participation, Conflict, and Political and Economic Dependence," International Studies Quarterly, Vol. 19, No. 4 (December 1975), pp. 469-500;
41. and Kempe R. Hope, "The Administration of Development in Emergent Nations: The Problems in the Caribbean," Public Administration and Development, Vol. 3 (1983), pp. 50-51.
42. Neville Linton, "A Policy Perspective," in Clarke and Payne, eds., Politics, Security, and Development in Small States, p. 214-217;
43. and Maurice A. East, "Size and Foreign Policy Behavior: A Test of Two Models," World Politics, Vol. 25, No. 4 (July 1973), pp. 556-576.
44. Clifford E. Griffin, "Drugs, Democracy and Instability in a Microstate," North-South: The Magazine of the Americas, Vol. 4, Issue 1 (July-August 1994).
45. Hassan Hamdan al-Alkim, The Foreign Policy of the United Arab Emirates (London: Saqi Books, 1989), p. 209.
46. East, "Size and Foreign Policy Behavior," pp. 558-560.
47. Harden, Small Is Dangerous, pp. 1-2.
48. George H. Quester, "Trouble in the Islands: Defending the Micro-States," International Security, Vol. 8, No. 2 (Fall 1983), pp. 164-165.
49. "In the developing south, most small and micro-states exhibit helplessness and vulnerability owing to a range of factors, many of which are externally induced while a number are indigenous and particular to specific states." Amalendu Misra, "Theorising 'Small' and 'Micro' State Behaviour Using the Maldives, Bhutan and Nepal," Contemporary South Asia, Vol. 13, No. 2 (June 2004), p. 145.
50. Ott, Small Is Democratic, pp. 128-129.
51. Dag Anckar, in "Why Are Small Island States Democracies?" The Round Table, No. 365 (2002), pp. 375-390, suggests that small entities are more likely to generate feelings of fellowship and a sense of community and thus their populations are better informed about society and politics. Elsewhere, the same author notes the choice of type of régime in small states frequently is a consequence of colonial heritage and therefore the predominance of parliamentary régimes among such states arises because their ranks include large numbers of former British colonies.
52. Dag Anckar, "Regime Choices in Microstates: The Cultural Constraint," Commonwealth & Comparative Politics, Vol. 42, No. 2 (July 2004), pp. 206-223.
53. Harden, Small Is Dangerous, pp. 115-123.
54. Barend A. de Vries, "Foreign Policy Coordination Among Small European States," Cooperation and Conflict, Vol. 23 (1988), p. 45;
55. cited in Ott, Small Is Dangerous, p. 34.
56. Of course there is always the alternative adopted by the Duchy of Grand Fenwick in Peter Sellers' classic film, The Mouse That Roared: declare war on the United States, then surrender and receive foreign aid.
57. Abdul-Reda Assiri, Kuwait's Foreign Policy: City-State in World Policy (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1990), p. xiv.
58. For more details on recent developments in political liberalization and participation, see Louay Bahry, "Elections in Qatar: A Window of Democracy Opens in the Gulf," Middle East Policy, Vol. 6, No. 4 (June 1999), pp. 118-127;
59. Olivier Da Lage, "La constitution du Qatar approuvée par referendum le 29 avril 2003" ["The Constitution of Qatar was Approved by Referendum on April 29, 2003"], Maghreb-Machrek, No. 176 (Spring 2003), pp. 111-121;
60. Fatiha Dazi-Héni, "Des processus électoraux engagés dans les monarchies du Golfe: les cas du Koweït et du Qatar," ["Electoral Processes Utilized in the Gulf Monarchies: the Case of Kuwait and Qatar"], Monde arabe - Maghreb-Machrek, No. 168 (April-June 2000), pp. 76-88;
61. Michael Herb, "Emirs and Parliaments in the Gulf," Journal of Democracy, Vol. 13, No. 4 (October 2002), pp. 41-47;
62. J.E. Peterson, The Arab Gulf States: Further Steps Towards Political Participation (Dubai: Gulf Research Center, 2006);
63. and Andrew Rathmell, and Kirsten Schulze, "Political Reform in the Gulf: The Case of Qatar," Middle Eastern Studies, Vol. 36, No. 4 (October 2000), pp. 47-62.
64. On foreign policy, see Jacob Abadi, "Qatar's Foreign Policy: The Quest for National Security and Territorial Integrity," Journal of South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, Vol. 27, No. 2 (Winter 2004), pp. 14-37.
65. Peter van Ham, "The Rise of the Brand State: The Postmodern Political Image and Reputation," Foreign Affairs, Vol. 80, No. 5 (Sept.-Oct. 2001), p. 3.
66. John M. Murphy, "What Is Branding?" in Murphy, ed., Branding: A Key Marketing Tool (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1987), p. 1.
67. Murphy, "What Is Branding?" p. 1.
68. Duane E. Knapp, The Brandmindset™ (New York: McGraw-Hill, 2000), p. xv.
69. James B. Twitchell, Branded Nation: The Marketing of Megachurch, College, Inc., and Museum World (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2004), pp. 4-5.
70. Murphy, "What Is Branding?" pp. 1-2.
71. Twitchell, Branded Nation, p. 38. Another practitioner divides branding into phases: the 1950s were characterized by the USP (unique selling proposition, with emphasis on the product rather than the brand); the 1960s saw the emergence of ESP (emotional selling proposition, with brands seen differently primarily because of an emotional attachment); the 1980s produced the OSP (organizational selling proposition, in which the organization or corporation behind the brand was in fact the brand, rather than a product); and the 1990s saw the BSP (brand selling proposition, in which the brand was stronger than the physical dimension of the product).
72. Martin Lindstrom, Brand Sense: Build Powerful Brands Through Touch, Taste, Smell, Sight, and Sound (New York: Free Press, 2005), p. 4.
73. Murphy, "What Is Branding?" pp. 1-2.
74. Twitchell, Branded Nation, p. 3.
75. Van Ham, "The Rise of the Brand State," p. 2.
76. Twitchell, Branded Nation, p. 290.
77. Van Ham, "Rise of the Brand State," p. 3. Van Ham goes even further in asserting that "...state branding is gradually supplanting nationalism. The brand state's use of its history, geography, and ethnic motifs to construct its own distinct image is a benign campaign that lacks the deep-rooted and often antagonistic sense of national identity and uniqueness that can accompany nationalism. By marginalizing nationalist chauvinism, the brand state is contributing greatly to the further pacification of Europe."
78. Van Ham, "Rise of the Brand State," p. 3.
79. Twitchell, Branded Nation, pp. 13-14.
80. Twitchell, Branded Nation, p. 294.
81. Twitchell, Branded Nation, p. 294.
82. Quoted in Van Ham, "Rise of the Branded State," p. 4.
83. Van Ham, "Rise of the Branded State," p. 4.
84. Van Ham, "Rise of the Branded State," pp. 5-6.
85. These immense and costly projects also gained the emirate some notoriety with the abrupt dismissal and temporary house arrest in early 2005 of Shaykh Sa'ud bin Muhammad bin 'Ali Al Thani, the head of the National Council for Arts, Culture, and Heritage. Shaykh Sa'ud had created ripples in the art world with the scope and deep pockets of his acquisitions of Islamic art. No reason was given for his dismissal but it is thought to have been the result of his mixing acquisitions between the state collections and his private collection. The events have been covered in the New York Times, March 9, 2005,
86. and The Art Newspaper (London), March 14 and 31, 2005.
87. Marc Gobé, Citizen Brand: 10 Commandments for Transforming Brands in a Consumer Democracy (New York: Allworth Press, 2002).