regional and international status, as well as the extent to which these transformations endured after the transfer of power in 2013. It argues that the most significant legacy of this period lay in the reconfiguration of Qatar’s sources of power: transforming hydrocarbon wealth into institutional and developmental capacities and deploying them to build economic, investment, media and diplomatic instruments that expanded Qatar’s international standing and room for manoeuvre at the regional and international levels. The study adopts a historical-analytical approach and employs a “continuity test” to distinguish between the leadership’s personal legacy and the state’s institutional and strategic legacies by tracing the performance of institutions, capabilities and strategic choices in the post-2013 period. It concludes that Sheikh Hamad’s reign represented a second foundational phase in the history of the modern Qatari state, during which the functions of the state, its sources of power, and its instruments of action were reshaped. The continued relevance of a significant part of these institutions, capabilities and strategic choices—and their further development under Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani—demonstrates the transformation of part of the 1995– 2013 experience from the legacy of a ruler into the legacy of a state. Keywords: Qatar, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, state-building, state capacity, natural gas, soft power, international status, small states, political legacy.
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