On Dec. 19, the day after the World Cup ends, Qatar's seven new soccer stadiums will go silent, littered with the residue of a million tourists. 12 years of preparation, scandal, narrative-shaping and even a blockade by its neighbors will have passed, and Qatar will have to ask itself whether the great effort was worth it. In the coming months and years, all of Qatar's World Cup investments could prove to be the pinnacle of the era of successful megaprojects that have hurtled the country toward modernity. And as Qatar prepares to journey down the other side of that peak, domestic development seems likely to focus on the mundane rather than the magnificent....
