Qualifying Qatar's Sports Investments as Levers of Subtle Power

Abstract

Qatar has recently risen from relative obscurity and ascended to a role as a larger regional power, with greater geopolitical ambitions still. One major part of this rise has been Qatar’s recent heavy investment into sport, both international and professional. In this work, I demonstrate the existence of a newer type of power, “subtle power”, then documenting the recent different facets of the Qatari sports investment strategy, before unifying the two concepts to demonstrate how Qatar’s sports investments can be translated into increased international power projection capabilities.