Qatar - National US-Arab Chamber of Commerce

H.H. Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa
Al-Thani: The Visionary Behind
Qatar’s Rising Star
H
.H. Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani
became Emir of the State of Qatar on
June 26, 1995. Under his thoughtful leadership,
Qatar has grown from a relatively modest
Gulf state to one of the wealthiest and increasingly
influential nations in the world.
Born in Doha in 1952, Sheikh Hamad is
part of a long line of Al-Thani family members
who have ruled Qatar since the 18th century.
He began his early education in Qatar and
later attended Sandhurst Military Academy
in England.
Following his graduation in 1971, Sheikh
Hamad was commissioned as a Lieutenant
Colonel in the Qatari Armed Forces and was
appointed Commander of the first Mobile
Battalion, now known as the “Hamad Mobile
Battalion.” He was later promoted to the rank
of Major General and appointed Commanderin-Chief
of Qatar’s Armed Forces.
In 1977, Sheikh Hamad was appointed
Heir Apparent of Qatar and Minister of
Defense. As part of his military career, Sheikh
Hamad oversaw an extensive program to
modernize Qatar’s troops, which involved
increasing manpower, creating new units,
updating weaponry, and improving training.
The success of his efforts was demonstrated
in 1990 during the Gulf War, when Qatari
troops helped to liberate Kuwait and led the
battle to recapture the Kuwaiti town of Khafji.
In the 1980s, as Chairman of the Supreme
Planning Council, Sheikh Hamad began to
lay the foundation for a modern state by
defining Qatar’s basic economic and social
policies and by overseeing the development
of Qatar’s abundant oil and natural gas reserves.
In 1995, he assumed leadership of the
nation from his father, H.H. Sheikh Khalifa
bin Hamad Al-Thani. That same year, H.H.
Emir Hamad and the First Lady, H.H. Sheikha
Mozah bint Nasser Al-Misned, created the
non-profit Qatar Foundation for Education,
Science and Community Development. This
Foundation has gone on to establish Qatar as
a regional pioneer in education reform and
scientific research.
Three years later, the inauguration of
Education City underscored Qatar’s desire to
lay a solid foundation for an innovative and
diversified knowledge-based society. Today,
Education City hosts satellite campuses of six
renowned American universities and has
proved to be one of the most successful
experiments in education reform in the world.
Also in the mid-1990s, Sheikh Hamad
launched an upstart television network called
Al Jazeera. Today, Al Jazeera has become the
Arab world’s most influential and widely
watched television channel and an essential
medium for projecting Qatar’s influence
around the world.
In 1997, Qatar became the second country
in the Arabian Gulf to grant women the right
to vote and, in 1999, municipal elections
marked the start of a gradual democratization
program. Voters approved a new constitution
in 2003, and Qatar’s first written constitution
took effect in 2005, thereby paving the way
for additional democratic reforms.
“The progress and high ideals
we seek for our country
depend on our capacity to
promote and develop our
educational institutions.”
H.H. Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani
Considered one of the most effective leaders
in the Arab world, Sheikh Hamad is also
highly respected as a peacemaker and mediator
in the international community. “We are a
peace-loving nation,” commented the Emir
in a recent interview with the London-based
Financial Times. “We focus our attention on
education, health reform and on investments
– both internal and external. Our aim is to
live in peace and do away with conflict. We
are always ready and prepared to play a
mediating role in any conflict . . . and we do
not take any sides.”
In 2008, Sheikh Hamad and his Foreign
Minister, H.H. Sheikh Hamad Bin Jassim
Al-Thani, brokered a peace agreement among
the warring factions in Lebanon. This agreement
is one of Qatar’s most important successes
in the Arab world, resulting in a massive
“victory parade” in Beirut that year that turned
H.H. Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani
Photo courtesy of the Embassy of Qatar
out hundreds of thousands of cheering Lebanese.
Other peacemaking efforts that have
generated kudos for Qatar include: brokering
a truce between Yemen’s warring factions in
2007; negotiating a settlement between Sudan
and Chad in 2009; and spearheading mediation
efforts that led to a peace agreement
between Djibouti and Eritrea in 2010.
Sheikh Hamad ensures that Qatar steers
a middle road politically and diplomatically,
and this middle road has played an important
role in that nation’s ability to serve as a respected
broker and mediator. Qatar is less equivocal,
however, when it comes to safeguarding the
country’s strategic and economic interests. In
this regard, Emir Hamad is one of America’s
most steadfast friends in the region.
Noting that Qatar has become an international
leader under the thoughtful policies
of Sheikh Hamad, U.S. Secretary of State
Hillary Rodham Clinton said in December
2010 that the “relationship between our two
nations has grown stronger and more dynamic
over the past few years as Qatar and the United
States work together to build a future that is
more peaceful, more prosperous and more
secure for all our people.”
In the 16 years that he has served as Emir,
Sheikh Hamad has launched significant
political, economic, and educational initiatives
that have transformed Qatar into one of the
most stable and progressive nations in the
region. A capstone of this leadership came in
December 2010, when Qatar was selected to
host the 2022 World Cup. This was the first
time ever for an Arab or Islamic nation to win
this honor, further enhancing the rising star
that is Qatar.
US-Arab Tradeline • Spring 2011 3