The Qatar Cup – a Potemkin Village of 21st-Century Capitalism

Ever since it won the right to host the 2022 World Cup, Qatar has been the subject of sustained critical scrutiny. A spotlight has been shone on the Gulf emirate’s repression of women and LGBTQ people, and its punishing exploitation of hundreds of thousands of migrant workers. But the picture is incomplete. The fact is that the roots of Qatari repression extend well beyond Qatar, connecting the emirate to the supposedly liberal states of the west.

Much of the discourse around the World Cup has carried the implication that abuses in Qatar are an outgrowth of a local conservative “culture”, as juxtaposed with more enlightened “western values”. In fact, the persistence of monarchical rule in the Gulf is the result of more than a century of collusion between local elites and the west. If we are serious in our objections to the abuses found in Qatar, then we need to consider how Qatari authoritarianism sits within a much wider system of power, violence and exploitation.

Even after the Gulf states gained independence in the 1960s and 70s, scores of British civilians remained in their militaries and state bureaucracies, including in Qatar’s, to ensure the regimes’ survival and their correct geopolitical orientation.

In more recent years, Qatar has become one of the world’s leading arms importers, with the regime’s military muscle now provided by the United States, France and other western suppliers. These include the UK, whose contribution includes a fleet of Typhoon military jets. And with its al-Udeid airbase playing host to the forward headquarters of the US military’s Central Command, Qatar sits right at the heart of western power projection into the Gulf, as it has done for more than 100 years.

Even after the Gulf states gained independence in the 1960s and 70s, scores of British civilians remained in their militaries and state bureaucracies, including in Qatar’s, to ensure the regimes’ survival and their correct geopolitical orientation.

Desiring basic rights

The peoples of the Gulf are no more or less desiring of basic rights and autonomy than the rest of the human race. If repressive monarchy has not given way to democracies and republics in the Gulf as it has elsewhere in the world, this is at least partly owing to a sustained and intensive intervention from the western powers on the side of the local elites.

The false notion that authoritarianism in the Gulf is simply a reflection of regional “culture” has its roots in the Orientalist discourse of the colonial era. To this day, racist caricatures of an enlightened west encountering the backward despotisms of the Middle East obscures the relevant history and legitimises the west’s role in the region. This self-serving mythology externalises and circumscribes the blame for human rights abuses in states like Qatar, while preserving a narcissistic sense of western innocence.

The regimes themselves are happy to play along with these fictions, presenting themselves as visionary “reformers” of societies hidebound by “tradition” and asking the west for patience as they struggle valiantly against the backwardness of their own people.

The false notion that authoritarianism in the Gulf is simply a reflection of regional “culture” has its roots in the Orientalist discourse of the colonial era.

The Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, was widely hailed as a “reformer” until the bubble was burst by the murder of the dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi among a wider, inescapable record of abuses. The Gulf regimes and their western allies have both told the reform story many times, but in truth the only reforms they are interested in are those that deflect political pressure and shore up the conservative regional order.

As a Potemkin village of 21st-century capitalism, the 2022 World Cup is not a phenomenon separate from or alien to the west. It is a representative example of the world that western power built. The western brands sponsoring the tournament benefit just as the regime does from the continued exploitation of migrant labour that is making the tournament possible.

The real goal is to provide Qatar’s western allies with an alibi for continuing the support that has been so crucial to the regime’s longevity.

And to the extent that the tournament serves to sportswash authoritarianism, it will be sportswashing an authoritarianism that has long been a joint venture between the west and Qatar. Only when the spotlight shines on the role of our own governments will true accountability for all this be possible.