College of Islamic Studies, Hamad Bin Khalifa University, Doha, Qatar

This paper studies the local perspective on innovation and entrepreneurship in the resource-based state of Qatar. The effective utilization of abundant natural resources (oil and gas) have propelled the country’s rapid economic development over the last four decades. However, accelerating decarbonization efforts of the global energy system due to climate change put the future value of these hydrocarbon resources into doubt and hence the country’s revenue streams from international trade.

Geographies of the Islamic world manifest stark disparities in terms of social and economic development. While some of the countries of the Ummah (Islamic community) benefited from Western donors and their development aid, there have been efforts to build endogenous capacity. A relatively well-known example is the case of the Organization for Islamic Cooperation (OIC), one of the major but not the only actor in Islamic development assistance. This study is an attempt to showcase Islamic development aid emanating from the Ummah, its geographical and organizational fractions and conditions.

This study seeks to advance the understanding of the utility of “soft power” by exploring the case of Qatar. The country's approach is conceptualized as “nested power” through the examination of its political strategies before and after the regional blockade in 2017. The role of soft and nested power in Qatar has already been examined through various vantage points, such as small state diplomacy, mediation, and sports.

This paper develops a theoretical model to analyze whether a rentier state can diversify its economy away from the rent revenue and hence sustain the economic development and preserve the status-quo. Considering the decarbonization process of the global economy and rapidly fall in economic value of hydrocarbons in the face of the supply glut, rentier states depending on oil and gas revenues urgently need to diversify their economies to avoid social backlash and political upheaval.

This chapter scrutinizes the fragmentation of the OIC aid system. It is argued that this fragmentation is a result of the asymmetrical intergovernmental relationship between a small number of aid donors (notably the hydrocarbon-rich Gulf States) and a large and increasing pool of aid recipients. The chapter illustrates that this process is empowered by the asymmetrical setting of the OIC (there are very few donors with whom to compete), donors have “bilateralized” the multilateral by supporting their own “aid recipients”. This has progressively fragmented the OIC aid system.

This book presents novel approaches to further South­South Cooperation (SSC) on a global scale. The evolving aid architecture and mounting development challenges demand an urgent and critical review of existing aid modalities, policy-making and forums for international cooperation. With the rise of emerging powers, we face an important question: ls the changing global order transforming the nature of development cooperation?

There are 1.6 billion Muslims in the world, represented on the world stage by 57 states, as well as a host of international organizations and associations. This book critically examines the engagement of these states in systems of global governance and with a variety of policy regimes, including climate change, energy, migration, humanitarian aid, international financial institutions, research and education.

It was sometime in December 1977 that my father took us for the first time for a visit to the city of the Prophetصلى الله عليه وسلم .