The 2014 Rift

Abstract

This chapter examines the period between the Arab Spring uprisings in 2011 and the first iteration of the rift between Qatar and its three Gulf neighbors in 2014, when Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Bahrain withdrew their Ambassadors from Doha for eight months. The chapter analyzes why and where policy responses to the Arab Spring differed and explores how they generated new tensions between Qatar and its neighbors, especially after the election of a Muslim Brotherhood-led government in Egypt in 2012 and its toppling a year later. By the time Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani became Emir of Qatar in June 2013, Saudi Arabia and the UAE had emerged at the head of a counter-revolutionary coalition determined to roll back the gains of the Arab Spring, and the chapter examines the immediate buildup of pressure on Qatar in late-2013, the contours of the 2014 rift, and the aftermath through 2016.