Using liquefied natural gas exports, Qatar has transformed from one of the poorest countries in the world into a rising player in the broader Islamic and Arab world. This transformation has stabilized the Qatari economy and has enabled it to pursue its foreign policy aspirations.
The associated growth between Doha's LNG exports and domestic economy has cemented the social and political stability in the emirate. With a population of less than 400,000, Qatar has achieved one of the world's highest per capita gross domestic product growth rates in recent years. By leveraging its relative wealth and small, stable population, Doha has forged a foreign policy initiative independent of its larger regional neighbors. This independence in the region has been important for a country that has spent much of its history in the shadow of neighboring giants Saudi Arabia and Iran and that was even ruled at one point by the tiny island monarchy of Bahrain. Since so much of Doha's strategy relies on using its wealth to buy influence, fund regional groups and mediate conflicts independently of its neighbors, Qatari energy policy — and by extension its economic future — directly relates to its foreign policy goals.
Now, with the strategic value of its overseas investments increasing, Qatar is rethinking how its economic opportunities relate to its political ideals. For example, Doha has been hesitant to resume its deliveries of LNG to Cairo to help offset Egypt's rising gas needs, leaving regional rivals Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to continue shouldering Egypt's sizeable economic needs on their own. Qatar's financial position is not changing, but regional pressures will lead Doha to adapt how it uses its wealth to advance its regional prerogatives. In the future, Doha will likely limit its investment in the region to those activities that advance its foreign policy ambitions and promise a certain degree of economic viability.
