ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on Qatar and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and examines their foreign and security policies in the face of new regional dynamics. It offers a comparative study of Qatari and Emirati policies prior to and after the Arab Spring. The chapter discusses how the state- or rather regime-centric strategies of Qatar and the UAE and their new avatars after the Arab Spring might paradoxically fuel security challenges rather than soothe them. Confronting Qatar and the UAE with the theoretical framework of small states’ strategies calls for a definition of what this taxonomy implies. Qatar and the UAE perfectly illustrate the idea that one state may be weak in one area while strong in another. Both are small in geography and demography but big in GDP terms. The chapter defines the specificities of their position in both regional and international systems, the superposition of which helps understanding their policies.
