Qatar Is Trying to Spend Its Way Militarily Out of Isolation in the Gulf

In recent months, the tiny Gulf state of Qatar has gone on a military spending spree, buying aircraft from the United States, France and, most recently, the United Kingdom. At the same time, Qatar has been increasingly isolated by its neighbors and fellow members of the Gulf Cooperation Council, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, which launched an economic blockade of Qatar in June with the help of Bahrain and Egypt. In an email interview, Camille Pecastaing, academic director and senior associate professor of Middle East studies at John Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), explains what’s […]