Similar structure, different behaviours: a comparative analysis of Qatar and the United Arab Emirates’ foreign policies

Abstract

Qatar and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) share various historical, political, cultural, and structural similarities. However, they have adopted divergent and often conflicting foreign policies towards Middle Eastern crises and civil wars since the Arab uprisings began in 2011.

This divergence is evident in their involvement in the region's civil wars in Yemen, Libya, and Syria. Initially, both countries were aligned in their stances at the beginning of these wars, but their paths diverged in the following period. For instance, in Libya, while the UAE supported Khalifa Haftar against the Tripoli government and re-established diplomatic relations with the Syrian regime in 2017, Qatar continued to support the Tripoli government and opposed the Assad regime. In Yemen, the UAE emerged as a prominent member of the Arab coalition alongside Saudi Arabia, initially backing the Hadi government against the Houthis before shifting its support to the Southern Transitional Council post-2017. Qatar's participation in the coalition was limited and ceased following its expulsion from the unified forces after the Gulf crisis erupted in June 2017. These opposing policies also sparked crises among the Gulf countries. Following a diplomatic rift in 2014, which led Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Bahrain to withdraw their ambassadors from Doha, a larger crisis unfolded in June 2017 when a broader coalition of Arab countries imposed a comprehensive embargo on Qatar as Doha did not cease its divergent foreign policy. This embargo lasted four years, ending with the Al-Ula Agreement in January 2021. This study explores why these two non-democratic, small-sized, neighbouring Gulf monarchies, constrained by similar structural factors, pursued divergent and conflicting foreign policies in the civil wars of Yemen, Libya, and Syria from 2011, the onset of the Arab uprisings, to 2021, the Al-Ula Agreement. Utilising role theory, this thesis argues that despite their similarities, Qatar and the UAE's divergent foreign policies in these three civil wars stem from their foreign policymakers' differing national role conceptions, influenced by their socialisation experiences of both countries in this period. This comparative research contributes to role theory scholarship by integrating socialisation experiences with national role conceptions to explain foreign policy roles. It also enriches theoretical approaches to foreign policy studies in the Middle East by applying role theory to the foreign policies of two non-democratic Gulf states.