We are pleased to announce that The Chair of the State of Qatar in Islamic Area Studies at Waseda University will be organizing the Majlis@Waseda on 29th April 2024. We would like to provide you with some details of the event:
“Mediation in the foreign policy of the smaller Gulf states: The Qatari model”
Mirdif Al Qashouti (ME Council)
Monday April 29, 17:00-18:30
Waseda University Building 3, Room 502
Mediation is one of the tools that countries use to highlight their soft power in a way that serves their interests and enhances their position regionally and internationally, in a relentless effort to secure their strategic depth through international and regional partnerships that are reflected in their foreign policy. These mediations have different effects related to the standard, relative, and also perceptual size of states, as stated in Matthew Szlay’s book on the complex size model of small states.
These effects vary according to the context in which they are presented in the analysis of foreign policy, and the behavior of states can be studied by analyzing their diplomatic activity at various levels, international and regional. In the Qatari model, there are several factors, some of which are linked to the theory of neoclassical realism, and some of which are linked to the model of soft power and public diplomacy.
This Majlis relies primarily on defining the complex size model with its four types (absolute – relative – standard – perceptual) and highlighting some examples from the smaller Gulf countries (Bahrain – Kuwait – Oman – Qatar – UAE) and reviewing the following definitions based on the context contained in the model. The complex size (foreign policy – small states – mediation) and clarifying the differences between definitions according to the point of view of specialists and researchers in this field.
Mediation also poses multiple challenges at the regional and international levels, and through the Majlis to be held, light will be shed on several models of mediation in its theoretical and analytical dimensions, while highlighting the research methodology in this field, which has the greatest impact in producing studies related to the effective image that reflects the truth without Pure theory or following whims in proportion to reality.
Please pre-register if you wish to attend at: https://forms.gle/NHwJJZMmwjNemrTX7
