Follow us on social

2021-11-12t164530z_182245461_rc24tq9817s5_rtrmadp_3_usa-qatar-scaled

Why Qatar's rise to Major Non-NATO Ally is not the best way forward

We have a good friend in Doha. But this status comes with new weapons and technology and will further cement the US footprint in the region.

Analysis | Middle East

The Biden administration announced this week that it was naming Qatar as a Major Non-NATO Ally (MNNA), making the small client the third government in the Persian Gulf to receive this designation after Bahrain and Kuwait. 

The new status involves no U.S. defense obligations to Qatar, but it facilitates closer security cooperation and gives them greater access to U.S. weapons, research, and technology than other clients. Qatar proved itself useful to the U.S. in Afghanistan, especially during the evacuation from Kabul, and this designation appears to be their reward. The MNNA designation demonstrates that it has fully regained its position in Washington less than five years after Trump gave a green light to the Saudi-led blockade of the country. 

Unfortunately, the upgrading of the relationship with Qatar also shows that the U.S. is further entangling itself in Middle Eastern affairs at a time when the region is decreasingly important for American interests. Taken together with the increasing support for the United Arab Emirates (UAE) announced by the Pentagon, including the additional deployment of jets and a warship, Biden is binding the U.S. military more closely to Middle Eastern clients instead of finding ways to reduce the U.S. military’s footprint there. Given limited resources and attention, deeper involvement in the Middle East is bound to come at the expense of focusing on more vital regions.

The turnaround in Qatar’s fortunes in Washington in recent years has been remarkable. In 2017, the Trump administration was initially content to let their neighbors try to starve them into submission after Saudi Arabia and the UAE convinced Trump that Qatar was a sponsor of terrorism. Presented with an absurd ultimatum that would have required them to give up an independent foreign policy and much of their sovereignty, Qatar proved resilient, relied on its considerable wealth, and strengthened ties with Iran and Turkey to ride out the worst effects of the blockade. Within a few years, Qatar’s lobbying operation matched and outcompeted that of the UAE and the Saudis. The blockade finally broke down when Saudi Arabia and Qatar restored relations last year. 

On the positive side, Qatar has distinguished itself as practically the only regional client that has been helpful in getting the U.S. out of one of our wars rather than making our government the enablers of theirs. In the near term, a closer relationship with Qatar may have some benefits because its more independent foreign policy and better relations with Iran may allow it to act as an intermediary and facilitator in supporting diplomatic engagement with Tehran. It is also conceivable that Qatar could serve a similar role in establishing a working relationship with the Taliban in the interests of addressing Afghanistan’s severe humanitarian crisis. There is also an interest in securing Qatari supplies of liquefied natural gas for Europe in the event of escalation in Ukraine. However, insofar as the deepening of the relationship makes it harder to shrink the U.S. military presence in the Middle East, that could end up costing the U.S. much more over the longer term than it gains us. 

Closer ties with clients in the Persian Gulf reflect the Biden administration’s strategic incoherence. Despite emphasizing the importance of East Asia and the “Indo-Pacific” to the U.S., the administration remains overcommitted to other regions and seems determined to increase commitments in both Europe and the Middle East. As Reuters reported, Biden “directed the Pentagon’s Austin to do everything he could to communicate the support of the United States for the UAE, Saudi Arabia and throughout the Gulf region.” 

This is obviously not the language of burden-sharing. Biden has fallen into the same trap that snared Obama during his second term, where he indulged regional client states to counter hawkish attacks that he was “abandoning allies.” Indulging the clients didn’t stop the attacks and it didn’t even buy much goodwill from the clients, but it did implicate the U.S. as an enabler of a senseless war and a catastrophic humanitarian catastrophe.

Granting Qatar the MNNA designation isn’t going to score Biden any points with his hawkish detractors. Because of Qatar’s constructive relationship with Iran and its support for the Muslim Brotherhood and the Palestinian cause, Qatar has long been the target of criticism from “pro-Israel” hawks, who have been only too happy to amplify Saudi and UAE talking points about Qatar’s supposed villainy. There are already demands from some conservative think tanks that Biden should reverse the MNNA designation and impose a state sponsor of terrorism designation instead. 

Because the UAE will be unhappy with Qatar’s new status on account of the long-running tensions between them, the Biden administration is evidently eager to “reassure” Abu Dhabi that the U.S. is supporting them more than ever. Secretary Austin said that the new military deployments to the UAE serve “as a clear signal that the U.S. stands with the UAE as a longstanding strategic partner.” While this deployment is being presented as purely defensive, it is being done in support of a government that continues to fuel the war on Yemen. Failing to extricate the U.S. from the war has now led to a growing American military presence in the region and an increased role in providing for the defense of a country that the U.S. is not obliged to defend. 

The administration’s so-called “back to basics” approach to the region has meant more of the same failed policies that have kept the U.S. mired in conflict for decades. As the Quincy Institute’s Trita Parsi recently observed, “If U.S. foreign policy is centered on ‘strengthening our partnerships and alliances,’ as [Brett] McGurk suggested, rather than U.S. interest rigorously defined, then not only will it manifest itself in regime changes in states that a threat to those partners, but it will also continue to entangle America in a variety of regional conflicts that are at most marginal to U.S. security.” The U.S. has often erred in the past by conflating the preferences and goals of its clients with U.S. interests and adopting their enemies as our own, and the Biden administration’s moves this week seem to be following the same pattern.

The main question that needs to be asked about all of these relationships is whether and how they advance U.S. security. There is a tendency in Washington to treat partnerships and client relationships as if they were ends in themselves rather than the means to U.S. ends that they are supposed to be. Throwing more weapons and support at Middle Eastern clients may keep those governments quiet for a time, but we know that military support for and arms sales to these states have a destabilizing effect over the longer term. 

The Biden administration ought to be finding ways to scale back U.S. commitments and responsibilities in regions where the U.S. has so few compelling interests, but with Qatar’s MNNA designation and more military support for the UAE they are going in exactly the wrong direction.


US Secretary of State Antony Blinken (R) and Qatar's Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani (L) depart after a news conference following a signing ceremony at the State Department in Washington, DC on November 12 , 2021. Olivier Douliery/Pool via REUTERS
Analysis | Middle East
Marco Rubio
Top image credit: Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaks with President Donald Trump during an event in the State Dining Room at the White House Oct. 8, 2025. Photo by Francis Chung/Pool/ABACAPRESS.COM VIA REUTERSCONNECT

Is Rubio finally powerful enough to topple Venezuela's regime?

Latin America

It appears that Secretary of State Marco Rubio is emerging victorious in the internal Trump administration battle over the direction of U.S. policy toward Venezuela.

The New York Times reported on Oct. 6 that White House special envoy Richard Grenell — who, after meeting President Nicolas Maduro in Caracas this January inked deportation agreements, won the release of American prisoners, and secured energy licenses for U.S. and European oil majors — was told by President Donald Trump to stop all diplomatic outreach toward the resource-rich South American nation.

keep readingShow less
Assimi Goita Mali
Top photo credit: Mali's junta leader Assimi Goita attends the first ordinary summit of heads of state and governments of the Alliance of Sahel States (AES) in Niamey, Niger July 6, 2024. REUTERS/Mahamadou Hamidou

Mali in crisis: When the junta has no one left to blame but itself

Africa

Since early September, members of the Jama'at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM) terrorist organization have been attacking and kidnapping truck drivers transporting fuel to the Malian capital of Bamako. The effects of this blockade appear to be reaching a high point, with images this week showing residents jammed into long lines in the city’s supply-squeezed gas stations.

This comes after several days during which the blockade’s cuts to fuel forced many gas stations across the city to close. Some of the stations that have since reopened are only able to sell diesel to the city’s residents.

keep readingShow less
Rep. Adam Smith
Top image credit: US Representative Adam Smith (L) and Shanghai Mayor Gong Zheng attend a meeting at the Shanghai's municipal government in Shanghai on September 25, 2025. JADE GAO/Pool via REUTERS

Lawmakers have an antidote for Washington's China panic

Asia-Pacific

In the midst of the U.S. government shutdown and controversy over military deployments in American cities, partisanship in Congress sometimes seems out of control. But legislators of both parties can still set aside their animosities when it comes to hyping conflict with China.

On Monday, Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chair Jim Risch introduced his Deter PRC Aggression Against Taiwan Act. On Tuesday, the House Select Committee on China issued a bipartisan report pressing to tighten the U.S. embargo against China on advanced semiconductors. On Wednesday, the Senate Committee on Aging highlighted “the terrifying reality” that, on generic pharmaceuticals, “our nation is completely beholden to Communist China.”

keep readingShow less

LATEST

QIOSK

Newsletter

Subscribe now to our weekly round-up and don't miss a beat with your favorite RS contributors and reporters, as well as staff analysis, opinion, and news promoting a positive, non-partisan vision of U.S. foreign policy.