The Qatari Financial Sector: Building Bridges between Domestic and International

Abstract

Neil Brenner argues we should not assume the relationship between ‘‘global cities” and the territorial State is a ‘‘zero sum”1 game. The zero sum view is that as cities grow into hubs or nodes of global capitalism, their power increases to the corresponding diminishment of the power of the territorial State. In other words, as global commercial realities are ‘‘locked in” to the global city, the State is ‘‘locked out”. The experience of Qatar — an energy-rich nation situated between the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Saudi Arabia — provides some support for Brenner’s observation.