Defense and Security

This chapter documents how Qatari policymakers strengthened existing defense and security relationships with key Western partners, notably the United States, the United Kingdom, France, and other European states, as well as how ties with ‘newer’ partners, notably Turkey, China, and Russia diversified and expanded the Qatari defense and security portfolio. The chapter also examines how an indigenous strategic industrial capability emerged with the formation of Barzan Holdings, the strategic investment arm of the Qatari Ministry of Defense, and assesses what the fracturing of the GCC – and especially of the common threat perception among the six Gulf States – means for the regional security architecture more broadly.