QATAR’S STRATEGY IN FACING THE ECONOMIC EMBARGO BY SAUDI ARABIA AND ALLIES IN 2017 - 2019

This paper seeks to explain how Qatar's strategy in dealing with the economic embargo carried out by Saudi Arabia and the alliance in 2017-2019. In 2017, Saudi Arabia and the alliance decided to cut off diplomatic relations. This was motivated by the good relations between Qatar and Iran and accusations against Qatar of funding several extremist groups in the Middle East. One of the sanction imposed by Saudi Arabia and the alliance against Qatar by embargoing the country's economy. The economic embargo is one of the sanctions imposed by Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirate, Bahrain and Egypt on Qatar which aims to reduce the rate of economic growth of the country. The Economic Embargo carried out by Saudi Arabia and the alliance is by closing sea, land and air access that can connect Qatar with these countries. This makes Qatar facing a food crisis, losses to its airline, a drop in oil prices and also a decline in the rate of investment and money in Qatar. To answer this question, this paper uses theory from Realism and the concept of alliance from Kenneth Waltz. This reseach found a strategy for Qatar to emerge from the economic embargo carried out by Saudi Arabia and the alliance in 2017 - 2019 with: (1) Recovering its domestic politics and (2) Conducting an alliance with Turkey and Iran as a form of strategy to get out of its domestic politics. All of these efforts were carried out by the Qatari government as an effort to survive and also get out of an economic embargo that has caused a lot of losses and to maintain the economic stability of the country.