Turkey and Qatar in the tangled geopolitics of the Middle East

'Turkey and Qatar in the Tangled Geopolitics of the Middle East' by Birol Başkan (Palgrave, 147 pages, £38)

The diplomatic siege of Qatar by Saudi Arabia-led Arab Gulf states has cemented ties between Turkey and the small but superrich petro-state. The Ankara-Doha alliance is among the most significant stories of recent years and it has come under renewed focus with the Saudi-led campaign. The two countries have increasingly solid diplomatic, economic, and security relations - often putting them at odds with neighboring Gulf states. 

Amid the current crisis, many people are frantically brushing up on the past and present of Turkey-Qatar relations. Some will be turning to "Turkey and Qatar in the Tangled Geopolitics of the Middle East" by Birol Başkan, an Assistant Professor at the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service in Qatar. The book is a useful, though rather dry, primer. It aims to answer the question of how and why Ankara and Doha have developed such a special relationship in recent years.

The book focuses on the post-9/11 landscape, when Turkey and Qatar were able to become more influential actors in the Middle East. They benefited from the escalating sectarian rivalry between Saudi Arabia and Iran, wary of Shiite Iran's rising influence but also preferring not to fall completely into the orbit of Saudi Arabia. "By benefiting from the leadership vacuum in the Arab World against a rising Iran, but themselves avoiding entrapment in the Saudi-Iran rivalry that revived and intensified in the second half of the 2000s, Turkey and Qatar could emerge as proactive players in the Middle East," writes Başkan. They raised their profile through arbitration efforts in a number of conflicts, including an attempted initiative with...