No more own goals

BARELY two months since Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani passed the crown to his son, Tamim, a new mood is taking hold in Doha, Qatar’s capital. Continuity is the official name of the game, but such catchphrases as “rebalancing”, “discipline” and even “the need to centralise” have crept into the political lexicon, heralding a shift in emphasis both at home and abroad.

The achievement of the departing emir, who is still only 61, was astonishing. When he ousted his father in 1995, Qatar was a sleepy Gulf statelet, with only 50,000 citizens. He turned it into a hub of diplomacy and even revolution, while giving its nationals the highest average GDP per person in the world (more than $80,000 at last count). Sheikh Hamad can plausibly claim to have been the most dynamic and charismatic Arab leader so far this century.