Analyzing the Effect of Geo-economics in Saudi-Qatar Rivalries

Intrduction:

The rivalries and tensions between Saudi Arabia and Qatar during the past recent years is a deep-rooted issue the reasons behind which should not be investigated merely in identity, ideological and political issues. The most important aspect of their rivalries arises from the geopolitical motivations arising out of geo-economic dynamics. The first signs of such rivalries emerged back in 1995 as a consequence of long-running disputes over natural gas resources. Since then, natural gas has become a bone of contention and has been regarded as the most important propeller of the rivalries between the two states.

This article seeks to analyze the rivalries between Qatar and Saudi Arabia from the perspective of political economy in the direction of regional hegemony.By drawing on the descriptive-analytical method, relying on library sources, and surveying the entire information available, the present article aims to provide geo-economic explanations on the Saudi-Qatar rivalries from the political economy perspective as one of the major pillars of analyzing geopolitical relations.

The various dimensions of the Qatari-Saudi Arabia geo-economic competition can be categorized into the following issues: regional actions Saudi-Qatar gas competition, international Qatari-Saudi gas competition international action, international investment competition, airline competition and tourism economy, competition in the field of media and sports competitions.

The findings of the present study show that the analysis of countries' relations in the world cannot be considered separately from political economy and consequently economic policies. In the same framework and in the form of geopolitical analysis, more accurate analyzes can be achieved by using political economy and geo-economics. In this article, more effort has been made to highlight the analytical framework of political economy during the competitions of different actors at different scales. Thus, the focus was on the competition between Saudi Arabia and Qatar as two rivals in the Arabian Peninsula from a geo-economics perspective