Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Qatar: The making of Machiavelli's 'The Prince'

Qatar's emir is an expert in Machiavellian politics

Al-Jazeera

"Eighteen years after executing a bloodless coup that kindled a passion for modernising and rebranding Qatar, Emir Hamad bin Khalifah Al Thani now upgrades statecraft to a new level: a voluntary transfer of power to the younger generation.

Through this masterful "game-changer", Emir Hamad effectively exorcises the ghost of his own father whom he deposed in 1995. More importantly, he sets Qatar on a transitional trajectory for his soon-to-be successor Crown Prince Tamim bin Hamad to follow and measure up to.

Paraphrasing Niccolo Machiavelli, Emir Hamad proves himself not to be the kind of prince motivated by preserving the status quo, but rather by overthrowing it. As Qatar, the Middle East and North Africa, and the world await the transfer, which is expected to be formalised in August, one question remains: How will the 31-year-old Sandhurst-trained Crown Prince Tamim, will borrow this leaf from his father's book?........"



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