Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-dh8gc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-20T06:16:23.690Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

#Blockade: Social Media and the Gulf Diplomatic Crisis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 November 2019

Jocelyn Sage Mitchell
Jocelyn Sage Mitchell*
Affiliation:
Northwestern University in Qatar
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The online public sphere, and the ways in which its digital media platforms influence discourse, is a crucial but understudied area of research in the six Arab monarchies of the Persian Gulf. Through a case study of the ongoing Gulf diplomatic crisis, which began in June 2017, this essay draws on the disciplines of political science, communication, and digital media studies to analyze qualitative examples of digital discourse: the role of women, territorial boundaries, and the FIFA World Cup 2022. Linking these flash points to historical struggles between the countries, this essay suggests that the politicization of the online public sphere in the region does not represent a fundamental change in the diplomacy of the region but rather a new battleground for old regional rivalries.

Keywords

Social MediaOnline Public SphereGulfPatriarchySovereigntyLegitimacyWorld Cup
Type
Special Focus: The Online Public Sphere in the Gulf
Information
Review of Middle East Studies , Volume 53 , Issue 2 , December 2019 , pp. 200 - 220
Copyright
Copyright © Middle East Studies Association of North America, Inc. 2019

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

1

Mitchell is an assistant professor in residence at Northwestern University in Qatar. Support for this research was provided by a grant (UREP 22-067-5-021) from the Qatar National Research Fund (a member of Qatar Foundation). The author thanks co-investigators Banu Akdenizli and Ibrahim Abusharif and research assistants Nada Qaddourah, Ömer Alaoui, and Lulwa Al-Khori for their insights. The author also thanks Sean Foley, Sahar Khamis, and Jessie Moritz for their comments on a draft of this essay, presented at the 2018 Middle East Studies Association in a panel entitled “The Online Public Sphere in the Gulf: Disagreement, Dialogue, Creativity, and Change,” Natalie Koch for her feedback, the peer reviewers for suggestions, and the editorial team at Review of Middle East Studies for their support.

References

2 Howard, Philip N. and Hussain, Muzammil M., Democracy's Fourth Wave? Digital Media and the Arab Spring (New York: Oxford University Press, 2013)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Zayani, Mohamed, Networked Publics and Digital Contention: The Politics of Everyday Life in Tunisia (New York: Oxford University Press, 2015)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

3 Everette E. Dennis, Justin D. Martin, and Robb Wood, Media Use in the Middle East: A Six-Nation Survey (2016), http://www.mideastmedia.org/survey/2016/.

4 Nurgul Oruc, “Digitally Networked: Hashtag Unity in the Midst of the Blockade of Qatar” (MA thesis, Qatar University, 2018), https://qspace.qu.edu.qa/handle/10576/11199.

5 Chadwick, Andrew, The Hybrid Media System: Politics and Power, 2nd ed. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2017)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Karpf, David, Analytic Activism: Digital Listening and the New Political Strategy (New York: Oxford University Press, 2016)Google Scholar.

6 Akdenizli, Banu, ed., Digital Transformations in Turkey: Current Perspectives in Communication Studies (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2015)Google Scholar; Jones, Marc Owen, “Social Media and Unethical P2P Diplomacy in the Bahrain Uprising,” in Social Media in the Arab World: Communication and Public Opinion in the Gulf States, eds. Gunter, Barrie, Elareshi, Mokhtar, and Al-Jaber, Khalid (London: I.B. Tauris, 2016)Google Scholar.

7 Beyer, Jessica L., Expect Us: Online Communities and Political Mobilization (New York: Oxford University Press, 2014)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

8 Ibrahim N. Abusharif, “Parsing ‘Arab Spring’: Media Coverage of the Arab Revolutions” (Northwestern University in Qatar, Occasional Paper Series, February 2014), http://www.qatar.northwestern.edu/docs/2014-Parsing-Arab-Spring.pdf; Howard and Hussain, Democracy's Fourth Wave?

9 Marc Owen Jones, Political Repression in Bahrain (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, forthcoming); Rabea, Ali, “Use of Sports Media to Crack Down on the 2011 Bahraini Uprising,” Sport in Society 21.12 (2018): 1939–56CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

10 Katie Benner, Mark Mazzetti, Ben Hubbard, and Mike Issac, “Saudis’ Image Makers: A Troll Army and a Twitter Insider,” New York Times, October 20, 2018, https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/20/us/politics/saudi-image-campaign-twitter.html.

11 Foley, Sean, Changing Saudi Arabia: Art, Culture, and Society in the Kingdom (Boulder: Lynne Rienner, 2019), 117–18Google Scholar; Marc Owen Jones, “Draining the Swamp Journalism: Automated Social Media News in the Gulf Twittersphere” (paper presentation, American Political Science Association, Washington, D.C., August 2019); “Twitter removes Iranian-backed accounts,” BBC News, June 14, 2019, https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-48635878.

12 Ghaffar, Mahmood Abdul, “Social Media: Impacts on Arabian Gulf Youth and Governments,” in State-Society Relations in the Arab Gulf States, eds. Zoby, Mazhar A. Al- and Baskan, Birol (Berlin: Gerlach Press, 2014), 61–76CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Zayani, Networked Publics.

13 Forestal, Jennifer, “The Architecture of Political Spaces: Trolls, Digital Media, and Deweyan Democracy,” American Political Science Review 111.1 (2017): 149–61CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Gunitsky, Seva, “Corrupting the Cyber-Commons: Social Media as a Tool of Autocratic Stability,” Perspectives on Politics 13.1 (2015): 42–54CrossRefGoogle Scholar; King, Gary, Pan, Jennifer, and Roberts, Margaret E., “How the Chinese Government Fabricates Social Media Posts for Strategic Distraction, Not Engaged Argument,” American Political Science Review 111.3 (2017): 484–501CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Roberts, Margaret E., Censored: Distraction and Diversion Inside China's Great Firewall (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2018)Google Scholar.

14 Adrian Chen, “The Agency,” New York Times Magazine, June 2, 2015, https://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/07/magazine/the-agency.html; Neil MacFarquhar, “A Powerful Russian Weapon: The Spread of False Stories,” New York Times, August 28, 2016, https://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/29/world/europe/russia-sweden-disinformation.html; Jim Rutenberg, “RT, Sputnik and Russia's New Theory of War,” New York Times Magazine, September 13, 2017, https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/13/magazine/rt-sputnik-and-russias-new-theory-of-war.html; Craig Timberg, “As a Conservative Twitter User Sleeps, His Account Is Hard at Work,” Washington Post, February 5, 2017, https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/as-a-conservative-twitter-user-sleeps-his-account-is-hard-at-work/2017/02/05/18d5a532-df31-11e6-918c-99ede3c8cafa_story.html?utm_term=.d452809e3d2d.

15 Ibrahim Abusharif, “Social Media, Religious Authority, and the Arab Gulf Crisis” (paper presentation, Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, Toronto, Canada, August 2019); Penney, Joel, The Citizen Marketer: Promoting Political Opinion in the Social Media Age (New York: Oxford University Press, 2017)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

16 This essay presents work from an interdisciplinary, multimethod grant project, funded by a grant from the Qatar National Research Fund, a member of Qatar Foundation (UREP 22-067-5-021). All statements made herein are the responsibility of the author.

17 Banu Akdenizli, “Blockade Diplomacy: The First 100 Days of the GCC Crisis on Twitter and How Foreign Ministers Voiced Themselves Online” (paper presentation, International Communication Association, Prague, Czech Republic, May 2018); Kristian Coates Ulrichsen, “What's Going On with Qatar?” Washington Post, June 1, 2017, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2017/06/01/whats-going-on-with-qatar/?utm_term=.5358ac094c15.

18 Kareem Fahim and Karen DeYoung, “Four Arab nations sever diplomatic ties with Qatar, exposing rift in region,” Washington Post, June 5, 2017, https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/four-arab-nations-sever-diplomatic-ties-with-qatar-exposing-rift-in-region/2017/06/05/15ad2284-49b4-11e7-9669-250d0b15f83b_story.html?utm_term=.6cdf50ed19bd.

19 Birce Bora, “Analysis: Why Is Turkey Deploying Troops to Qatar?” Al Jazeera, June 11, 2018, https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2017/06/analysis-turkey-deploying-troops-qatar-170607174911372.html; Mohammed Sergie, “Embattled Qatar Is Rich Enough to Get By for Another 100 Years,” Bloomberg News, June 6, 2018, https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-06-06/a-year-later-iran-is-the-big-winner-of-the-qatar-embargo.

20 Mitchell, Jocelyn Sage, “The Domestic Policy Opportunities of an International Blockade,” in The Gulf Crisis: The View from Qatar, ed. Miller, Rory (Doha: Hamad bin Khalifa University Press, 2018), 58–68Google Scholar; Tok, M. Evren, “Entrepreneurship in Qatar: Is the Blockade a Golden Opportunity?” in The Gulf Crisis: The View from Qatar, ed. Miller, Rory (Doha: Hamad bin Khalifa University Press, 2018), 39–48Google Scholar.

21 Gabriel Collins, “Anti-Qatar Embargo Grinds Toward Strategic Failure” (Baker Institute for Public Policy, Rice University, January 22, 2018), https://www.bakerinstitute.org/files/12535/.

22 Marc Lynch, “Three Big Lessons of the Qatar Crisis,” Washington Post, July 14, 2017, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2017/07/14/three-big-lessons-of-the-qatar-crisis/?utm_term=.5602a1077ffb.

23 Akdenizli, “Blockade Diplomacy.”

24 Foley, Sean, The Arab Gulf States: Beyond Oil and Islam (Boulder: Lynne Rienner, 2010), 167–200Google Scholar.

25 Al-Rasheed, Madawi, A Most Masculine State: Gender, Politics, and Religion in Saudi Arabia (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2013), 22–25, 103–107CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

26 Forster, Nick, A Quiet Revolution? The Rise of Women Managers, Business Owners and Leaders in the Arabian Gulf States (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Independent Group of Concerned Citizens, “Qatar Shadow Report” (UN Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination on Women (CEDAW), 57th Session, February 2014), http://tbinternet.ohchr.org/Treaties/CEDAW/Shared%20Documents/QAT/INT_CEDAW_NGO_QAT_16177_E.pdf; Noora Ahmed Lari, “Gender and Equality in the Workplace: A Study of Qatari Women in Leadership Positions” (MA thesis, Durham University, 2016), http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/11855/; Hessa Saad Al-Muhannadi, “The Role of Qatari Women: Between Tribalism & Modernity” (MA thesis, Lebanese American University, 2011), https://doi.org/10.26756/th.2011.18.

27 Jocelyn Sage Mitchell, Christina Paschyn, Sadia Mir, Kirsten Pike, and Tanya Kane, “In Majaalis al-Hareem: The Complex Professional and Personal Choices of Qatari Women,” DIFI Family Research and Proceedings 4 (2015), http://www.qscience.com/doi/pdf/10.5339/difi.2015.4.

28 Roberts, David B., Qatar: Securing the Global Ambitions of a City-State (London: Hurst, 2017), 77–78Google Scholar.

29 Mark Mazzetti and Ben Hubbard, “It Wasn't Just Khashoggi: A Saudi Prince's Brutal Drive to Crush Dissent,” New York Times, March 17, 2019, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/17/world/middleeast/khashoggi-crown-prince-saudi.html.

30 Dominic Dudley, “Saudi Arabia Eyes Up Canal Border Idea, Turning Qatar from a Peninsula into an Island,” Forbes, April 6, 2018, https://www.forbes.com/sites/dominicdudley/2018/04/06/saudi-canal-qatar-island/#2fd45a0c249e.

31 Restrictions on Al Jazeera and the Muslim Brotherhood featured prominently in the original list of 13 demands presented to Qatar by the members of the blockade. See: “Arab States Issue 13 Demands to End Qatar–Gulf Crisis,” Al Jazeera, July 12, 2017, https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/06/arab-states-issue-list-demands-qatar-crisis-170623022133024.html.

32 Ulrichsen, Kristian Coates, Qatar and the Arab Spring (London: Hurst, 2014), 100–03CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Roberts, Qatar, 93–102, 131–35, 126–28; Gray, Matthew, Qatar: Politics and the Challenges of Development (Boulder: Lynne Rienner, 2013), 185–213Google Scholar; Kamrava, Mehran, Qatar: Small State, Big Politics (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2013), 75–78Google Scholar.

33 Althani, Mohamed A.J., Jassim the Leader: Founder of Qatar (London: Profile Books, 2012)Google Scholar; Crystal, Jill, Oil and Politics in the Gulf: Rulers and Merchants in Kuwait and Qatar, rev. ed. (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1995)Google Scholar; Fromherz, Allen J., Qatar: A Modern History (New York: I.B. Tauris, 2012)Google Scholar; Kéchichian, Joseph, Power and Succession in Arab Monarchies: A Reference Guide (Boulder: Lynne Rienner, 2008)Google Scholar; Zahlan, Rosemarie Said, The Creation of Qatar (London: Croom Helm, 1979)Google Scholar.

34 Roberts, Qatar, 53–54.

35 Jim Krane, “Stability versus Sustainability: Energy Policy in the Gulf Monarchies” (Electricity Policy Research Group Working Paper 1302, University of Cambridge, February 2013), http://www.eprg.group.cam.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/1302-PDF.pdf.

36 International Court of Justice, “Case Concerning Maritime Delimitation and Territorial Questions between Qatar and Bahrain (Qatar v. Bahrain): Judgment of 16 March 2001” (2001), 80–81, https://www.icj-cij.org/files/case-related/87/087-20010316-JUD-01-00-EN.pdf.

37 “Bahrain Re-opens Border Dispute with Qatar,” Al Jazeera, November 5, 2017, https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/11/bahrain-opens-border-dispute-qatar-171105062102281.html.

38 George Orwell, “The Sporting Spirit,” Tribune, December 14, 1945.

39 Hobsbawm, E.J., Nations and Nationalism Since 1780: Programme, Myth, Reality, 2nd ed. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992), 143CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

40 Roche, Maurice, Mega-Events and Modernity: Olympics and Expos in the Growth of Global Culture (London: Routledge, 2000)Google Scholar.

41 Roche, Mega-Events and Modernity, 1.

42 Cha, Victor D., Beyond the Final Score: The Politics of Sport in Asia (New York: Columbia University Press, 2009), 33Google Scholar.

43 Cha, Beyond the Final Score, 29.

44 Roche, Mega-Events and Modernity, 6.

45 Roche, Mega-Events and Modernity, 1.

46 Koch, Natalie, “The Geopolitics of Sport beyond Soft Power: Event Ethnography and the 2016 Cycling World Championships in Qatar,” Sport in Society 21.12 (2018): 2012CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

47 Koch, “The Geopolitics of Sport,” 2012. See also: Amara, Mahfoud, Sport, Politics and Society in the Arab World (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012), 94–114CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

48 Fawad Hussain, “Qatar Braces for Top-Notch Action as Olympic Committee Announces Busy Schedule,” The Peninsula, April 1, 2018, https://www.thepeninsulaqatar.com/article/01/04/2018/Qatar-braces-for-top-notch-action-as-olympic-committee-announces-busy-schedule. For a historical overview of major international events, see: Reiche, Danyel, “Investing in Sporting Success as a Domestic and Foreign Policy Tool: The Case of Qatar,” International Journal of Sport Policy and Politics 7.4 (2015): 493CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

49 Scharfenort, Nadine, “Off and Running: Qatar Brands for FIFA World Cup, and Life Beyond,” in Under Construction: Logics of Urbanism in the Gulf Region, eds. Steffen Wippel, Katrin Bromber, Christian Steiner, and Birgit Krawietz (Farnham: Ashgate, 2014), 71–87Google Scholar.

50 Bromber, Katrin and Krawietz, Birgit, “The United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Bahrain as a Modern Sports Hub,” in Sport Across Asia: Politics, Cultures, and Identities, eds. Katrin Bromber, Birgit Krawietz, and Joseph Maguire (New York: Routledge, 2013), 189–211CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

51 Bromber and Krawietz, “The United Arab Emirates,” 189.

52 Daniel Shane, “UAE Willing to Host 2022 World Cup Matches,” Arabian Business, April 8, 2013, https://www.arabianbusiness.com/uae-willing-host-2022-world-cup-matches-497058.html.

53 “UAE ‘Happy’ to Help Host Qatar 2022 World Cup Matches,” Al Jazeera, January 1, 2019, https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/01/uae-happy-host-qatar-2022-world-cup-matches-190101074644388.html. However, the suitability of the UAE for hosting World Cup matches may have suffered a setback after the fans’ behavior in the 2019 Asian Cup semifinal match, in which shoes and bottles were thrown onto the field at the Qatari players after each of their four goals against the home team. See: “With Shoes and Insults Flying, Qatar Beats U.A.E. and Advances to Asian Cup Final,” Associated Press, January 29, 2019, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/29/sports/qatar-uae-boycott-asian-cup.html.

54 Shane, “UAE Willing,” 2013.

55 “Katar Soll Entzug der WM 2022 Drohen, USA oder England als Ausrichter Möglich,” Focus, February 23, 2018, https://www.focus.de/sport/fussball/informationen-aus-saudi-arabien-katar-droht-dieses-jahr-der-entzug-der-wm-2022-usa-oder-england-als-ausrichter-moeglich_id_8518285.html.

56 Zirin, Dave, Brazil's Dance with the Devil: The World Cup, the Olympics, and the Fight for Democracy (Chicago: Haymarket, 2014)Google Scholar.

57 Grix, Jonathan, ed., Leveraging Legacies from Sports Mega-Events: Concepts and Cases (New York: Palgrave, 2014), xiCrossRefGoogle Scholar. Some analysts link the recent presidential election of right-wing politician Jair Bolsonaro to the public outrage over the scandals and corruption of hosting the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Olympics. See: Dave Zirin, “From World Cup to the Specter of Fascism,” The Progressive, November 9, 2018, https://progressive.org/dispatches/from-world-cup-to-the-specter-of-fascism-181109/.

58 Reiche, “Investing in Sporting Success,” 498–99.

59 Roberts, Qatar, 118.

60 Roberts, Qatar, 112.

61 Roberts, Qatar, 106.

62 Amara, Sport, Politics and Society, 111; David Conn, “Qatar Migrant Workers Are Still Being Exploited, Says Amnesty Report,” Guardian, September 26, 2018, https://www.theguardian.com/football/2018/sep/26/qatar-world-cup-workers-still-exploited-says-amnesty-report; “Exclusive: Qatar Sabotaged 2022 World Cup Rivals with ‘Black Ops,’” The Sunday Times, July 29, 2018, https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/exclusive-qatar-sabotaged-2022-world-cup-rivals-with-black-ops-glwl3kxkk.

63 Anthony Harwood, “How Football Created the Biggest Crisis in the Middle East for Decades,” Independent, October 12, 2017, https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/middle-east-football-crisis-qatar-world-cup-saudi-arabia-uae-blockade-al-jazeera-football-united-a7996276.html; Liz Sly, “Princely Feuds in the Persian Gulf Thwart Trump's Efforts to Resolve the Qatar Dispute,” Washington Post, May 13, 2018, https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/princely-feuds-in-the-persian-gulf-thwart-trumps-efforts-to-resolve-the-qatar-dispute/2018/05/13/7853cc88-39cf-11e8-af3c-2123715f78df_story.html?utm_term=.a9b3e0d69329.

64 Heidi N. Moore, “Closing the Deal: How Qatar Won the World Cup,” New York Times, December 7, 2010, https://dealbook.nytimes.com/2010/12/07/closing-the-deal-how-qatar-won-the-world-cup/.

65 David Conn, “2022 World Cup in Qatar to remain as a 32-team tournament, Fifa announces,” Guardian, May 22, 2019, https://www.theguardian.com/football/2019/may/22/2022-world-cup-in-qatar-to-remain-a-32-team-tourament-fifa-announce-48-teams.