Yearbook 2012
Qatar. Qatar, the world’s richest country in terms of GDP per citizen, continued to try to turn its oil and natural gas revenues into power and to market itself as “the country that can talk to everyone” – Iran and the United States, Israel and Islamist Hamas. Afghan Taliban were allowed to open an office in the capital Doha and supported the rebels in Syria, including money, while buying the entire French football team Paris Saint-Germain, which you previously owned only a part of. They also invested heavily in educating their own population – everything from literacy to collaborations with American universities, which set up branches in Doha. Much of this activity was channeled through the powerful Qatar Foundation.
At the same time, the country was criticized by human rights organizations for lack of freedom of expression. The poet Mohammed al-Ajami, who was arrested in 2011, was accused by Amnesty International of have “offended the emir”. al-Ajami was held in an isolation cell and trial sessions were held behind closed doors, sometimes without a lawyer. Human Rights Watch criticized a proposal for a new media law for prohibiting publication of data such as could “offend the governing family”.
- AbbreviationFinder.org: Provides most commonly used acronyms and abbreviations for Qatar. Also includes location map, major cities, and country overview.
At the turn of the month November/December, representatives of the world’s countries met in Doha for the eighteenth annual UN Conference on Climate Change (COP18). The choice of meeting place was criticized because Qatar is one of the countries that emit the most greenhouse gases per capita. The meeting resulted in an agreement that the previous agreement, the Kyoto Protocol, would be extended but otherwise did not lead to any breakthrough.
Nineteen people, including 13 children, were killed in a fire in a Doha mall on May 28.
Population 2012
According to countryaah, the population of Qatar in 2012 was 2,565,599, ranking number 142 in the world. The population growth rate was 6.690% yearly, and the population density was 220.9914 people per km2.
Defense and security
Qatar, more than other Gulf countries, is stable and safe from external threats. Given the limited size of its army (which is made up of about 70% immigrants), its security is guaranteed in particular by foreign powers, first of all the United States, followed by the United Kingdom and France. Furthermore, unlike other Gulf players, Qatar does not invest large resources in defense and its military spending is the lowest in the entire area.
The United States has important military bases on Qatari territory, such as the al-Udeid air base which offers the longest runway that the Washington armed forces can use in the Middle East. Doha also granted the United States permission to use its military infrastructure as a logistical base for the 2003 Iraq war. Support for US military policy potentially jeopardizes Qatari security against radical Islamic forces, which however do not they appear to be active in Qatar. The only event in this regard is a suicide bombing in the capital Doha in 2005, which resulted in one victim. Since that time, the government has further strengthened anti-terrorism and control measures.Unifil and participated by sending some hunts for the NATO intervention in Libya in 2011.