Qatar recently has begun expanding its air force going from 12 to 96 fighter jets, with more on the way. The army and navy have also seen a drastic increase in size with Qatar spending billions in order to build an army and protect itself from neighboring countries. Tensions grew between Qatar and Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain when they pulled their ambassadors out of Qatar. Several months later the ambassadors returned but there was a clear rift in the Gulf Cooperation Council and was unlikely to heal any time soon. Secretly, Qatar set out to expand its armed forces. With the United States and Turkey being key allies to Qatar, and the US having a major airbase in Qatar, it’s clear that the United States would be there to back up Qatar. In 2017, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and Egypt all cut diplomatic ties with Qatar following the Trump administration’s actions. A possible invasion by Saudi Arabia and UAE pushed Qatar to accelerate its military advancement. Qatar has bought jets from France, USA, and Britain. The three countries agreed to train the Qatari pilots. With allies both in and beyond the region it would be difficult for neighboring countries to invade without someone coming back for them.
I feel like the rapid arms increase in Qatar is fair. With tensions between Saudi Arabia, UAE, and Qatar they can not be left with old equipment and not enough supplies to fight against well trained armies with new equipment of their own. With the United States having their Central Command or CENTCOM in Qatar with 10,000 personnel, it is fair to say that Qatar would be difficult to invade. For the future, Qatar may have new weapons, but those weapons are old and they must keep up with modern day technology if they want a chance in a fight.
With Qatar spending large sums of money on new weaponry it can be seen as a Security Dilemma. While they are preparing for a possible outbreak of war, they’re unaware of the possible outcrys it may cause in the surrounding region. Qatar with a population of only 2.78 million people, the country has slim pickings of people to choose to fight for them. Although the United States may be close allies with Qatar, to what expectation would they back them up? With Qatar being the wealthiest country in the world per capita, they have the ability to expand their arms with their large oil reserves.