Nowhere near as religious as its neighbour, Saudi Arabia, nor as bling-obsessed as nearby United Arab Emirates, Qatar has astutely observed the paths other Gulf states have chosen, and then cherry-picked what seems to work best.
This careful approach has led the country to almost unimaginable success. Since Emir Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani took power in 1995 (ousting his father in a bloodless coup), Qatar has expanded its economy, mainly based on gas and oil, to the point where the nation has the second-highest GDP per capita in the world, just behind Liechtenstein. This wealth is fairly evenly distributed amongst nationals too: you will be hard pressed to find an impoverished or even working class Qatari, as the government provides most citizens with such generous benefits that some need not be employed at all.
