BETWEEN ISLAM AND DIPLOMACY A Qualitative Discourse Study on Qatar’s Construction and Reconciliation of National Identities in the United Nations General Assembly

Abstract

Since the 1990s, the Emirs of Qatar have sought to position their nation as both an Islamic state and a neutral mediator in international conflicts. These national identities may contradict each other, as neutrality can be challenging to achieve when a religious bias is used as a state policy instrument. The purpose of this thesis is to examine how contradicting national identities are constructed and reconciled through linguistic and rhetorical methods. This thesis examines ten speeches delivered by two Qatari Emirs in the UN General Assembly between 2001 and 2022. This thesis aims to answer how these national identities are discursively constructed and reconciled by applying a poststructuralist discourse analysis as the main method. The analytical framework is based on Laclau and Mouffe’s poststructuralist discourse theory for answering how identities are constructed, and Joseph Cerrone’s theory of Civilizational Discourse Reconciliation to explain how they are reconciled. The results from the analysis showed that Qatar both constructs and reconciles these identities by using linguistic strategies to normalize Islam in a liberal context, such as the UN General Assembly. By highlighting similarities between Islam and international liberal norms, Qatar manages to appear as a credible Islamic and neutral actor.