Qatar

Following the high of the inaugural Art Basel Qatar, and the low of the ongoing Iran war, Qatar is doubling down on global and regional cultural diplomacy.

As Qatar looks to the future, it will have to assess the battered landscape of the global LNG industry, reassure its customer base, and rethink its approach for a very different market.

Under Emir Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, Qatar would be known – as a mediator, a broadcaster, a host of mega sports events, and an investor – and that notoriety would itself become a form of security: deterrence by relevance.

Ports will be key focus areas of economic infrastructure buildout efforts as the region works to move beyond the Iran conflict.

Gulf national pavilions at the 61st Venice Biennale seek to uphold local heritage amid regional and global instability.

Qatar's first World Cup point, earned through a goalkeeper of Palestinian descent, reveals how the emirate has turned a tiny citizenry, migration, and naturalization into an instrument of statecraft and where that instrument meets its limits.

A strong relationship with the GCC acts as a stabilizing force for an inherently fragile Iraqi state. But to maintain this, Iraq needs to pair sophisticated regional diplomacy with assertive control over the nonstate actors operating within its borders.

On June 8, AGSI convened its Petro Diplomacy conference for the 12th consecutive year.