A game of two halves: how ‘sportswashing’ benefits Qatar and the west

The World Cup is designed to showcase a regime heading in the right direction. And that safeguards existing power relationsEver since it won the right to host the 2022 World Cup, Qatar has been the subject of sustained critical scrutiny. A spotlight has been shone on the Gulf emirate’s repression of women and LGBTQ people, and its punishing exploitation of hundreds of thousands of migrant workers. But the picture is incomplete. The fact is that the roots of Qatari repression extend well beyond Qatar, connecting the emirate to the supposedly liberal states of the west.Much of the discourse around the World Cup has carried the implication that abuses in Qatar are an outgrowth of a local conservative “culture”, as juxtaposed with more enlightened “western values”. In fact, the persistence of monarchical rule in the Gulf is the result of more than a century of collusion between local elites and the west. If we are serious in our objections to the abuses found in Qatar, then we need to consider how Qatari authoritarianism sits within a much wider system of power, violence and exploitation.

The processes of state formation that brought the modern Qatari state into being are inextricably bound up with histories of capitalism and western imperialism. It was British imperial power that first integrated the Gulf states of Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, the UAE and Oman into the structures of the global economy with discoveries of vast oil and gas reserves sealing the region’s status as a major material and geostrategic prize.

To ensure British influence and privileged access to this prize, local monarchies such as the Al-Thani family in Qatar were built up and buttressed against external and internal challenges. Britain worked with these client elites to develop systems of internal repression designed to foreclose any possibility of nationalist forces overthrowing the monarchies and breaking ties with the west. Even after the Gulf states gained independence in the 1960s and 70s, scores of British civilians remained in their militaries and state bureaucracies, including in Qatar’s, to ensure the regimes’ survival and their correct geopolitical orientation.In more recent years, Qatar has become one of the world’s leading arms importers, with the regime’s military muscle now provided by the United States, France and other western suppliers. These include the UK, whose contribution includes a fleet of Typhoon military jets. And with its al-Udeid airbase playing host to the forward headquarters of the US military’s Central Command, Qatar sits right at the heart of western power projection into the Gulf, as it has done for more than 100 years.The World Cup is designed to showcase a regime heading in the right direction. And that safeguards existing power relationsEver since it won the right to host the 2022 World Cup, Qatar has been the subject of sustained critical scrutiny. A spotlight has been shone on the Gulf emirate’s repression of women and LGBTQ people, and its punishing exploitation of hundreds of thousands of migrant workers. But the picture is incomplete. The fact is that the roots of Qatari repression extend well beyond Qatar, connecting the emirate to the supposedly liberal states of the west.Much of the discourse around the World Cup has carried the implication that abuses in Qatar are an outgrowth of a local conservative “culture”, as juxtaposed with more enlightened “western values”. In fact, the persistence of monarchical rule in the Gulf is the result of more than a century of collusion between local elites and the west. If we are serious in our objections to the abuses found in Qatar, then we need to consider how Qatari authoritarianism sits within a much wider system of power, violence and exploitation.

The processes of state formation that brought the modern Qatari state into being are inextricably bound up with histories of capitalism and western imperialism. It was British imperial power that first integrated the Gulf states of Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, the UAE and Oman into the structures of the global economy with discoveries of vast oil and gas reserves sealing the region’s status as a major material and geostrategic prize.

To ensure British influence and privileged access to this prize, local monarchies such as the Al-Thani family in Qatar were built up and buttressed against external and internal challenges. Britain worked with these client elites to develop systems of internal repression designed to foreclose any possibility of nationalist forces overthrowing the monarchies and breaking ties with the west. Even after the Gulf states gained independence in the 1960s and 70s, scores of British civilians remained in their militaries and state bureaucracies, including in Qatar’s, to ensure the regimes’ survival and their correct geopolitical orientation.In more recent years, Qatar has become one of the world’s leading arms importers, with the regime’s military muscle now provided by the United States, France and other western suppliers. These include the UK, whose contribution includes a fleet of Typhoon military jets. And with its al-Udeid airbase playing host to the forward headquarters of the US military’s Central Command, Qatar sits right at the heart of western power projection into the Gulf, as it has done for more than 100 years.The World Cup is designed to showcase a regime heading in the right direction. And that safeguards existing power relationsEver since it won the right to host the 2022 World Cup, Qatar has been the subject of sustained critical scrutiny. A spotlight has been shone on the Gulf emirate’s repression of women and LGBTQ people, and its punishing exploitation of hundreds of thousands of migrant workers. But the picture is incomplete. The fact is that the roots of Qatari repression extend well beyond Qatar, connecting the emirate to the supposedly liberal states of the west.Much of the discourse around the World Cup has carried the implication that abuses in Qatar are an outgrowth of a local conservative “culture”, as juxtaposed with more enlightened “western values”. In fact, the persistence of monarchical rule in the Gulf is the result of more than a century of collusion between local elites and the west. If we are serious in our objections to the abuses found in Qatar, then we need to consider how Qatari authoritarianism sits within a much wider system of power, violence and exploitation.

The processes of state formation that brought the modern Qatari state into being are inextricably bound up with histories of capitalism and western imperialism. It was British imperial power that first integrated the Gulf states of Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, the UAE and Oman into the structures of the global economy with discoveries of vast oil and gas reserves sealing the region’s status as a major material and geostrategic prize.

To ensure British influence and privileged access to this prize, local monarchies such as the Al-Thani family in Qatar were built up and buttressed against external and internal challenges. Britain worked with these client elites to develop systems of internal repression designed to foreclose any possibility of nationalist forces overthrowing the monarchies and breaking ties with the west. Even after the Gulf states gained independence in the 1960s and 70s, scores of British civilians remained in their militaries and state bureaucracies, including in Qatar’s, to ensure the regimes’ survival and their correct geopolitical orientation.In more recent years, Qatar has become one of the world’s leading arms importers, with the regime’s military muscle now provided by the United States, France and other western suppliers. These include the UK, whose contribution includes a fleet of Typhoon military jets. And with its al-Udeid airbase playing host to the forward headquarters of the US military’s Central Command, Qatar sits right at the heart of western power projection into the Gulf, as it has done for more than 100 years.