Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani, the former emir of Qatar, has died at the age of 74. He was a sweeping moderniser who seized power in 1995 and broke with tradition to hand it over to his son 18 years later.

Modernisation and Legacy

Sheikh Hamad presided over one of the most consequential periods in Qatar’s history, driving a rapid transformation of the tiny desert state that reshaped its economy, global profile, and political ambition. He established media network Al Jazeera, which gave Qatar an outsized voice in Arab politics and projected its influence far beyond the Gulf.

Sheikh Hamad was the architect of Qatar’s effort to develop its liquefied natural gas (LNG) infrastructure, turning the state into one of the world’s largest exporters and laying the foundations for its vast wealth. He also oversaw the successful bid to host the 2022 soccer World Cup, a move that firmly put Qatar on the global stage and accelerated a decade of infrastructure building that remade the capital Doha.

Foreign Policy and Controversy

Sheikh Hamad’s foreign policy carved out a role for Qatar as a mediator, brokering talks in conflicts from Lebanon to Yemen and Darfur while maintaining ties with the United States and Iran. However, his support for revolutionary movements and Islamist groups across the region during the 2011 Arab Spring uprisings was controversial and put him at odds with fellow Gulf monarchs in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

Original reporting: Appleton, WI News Feed (HLL/CB) — read the source article.