Rol kavramları ve dış politika çalışması: Katar politika yapıcıları ve rol kavramları örneği

In foreign policy studies, Kal Holsti's national role conception framework, as developed by Le Prestre (1997), tends to be employed widely for studying policymakers' representation of their country's roles in the regional and international systems, as well as the sources of these roles. Within the milieu of Qatari foreign affairs, this thesis utilizes Holsti's seminal framework to discern (a) the predominant roles that are articulated in Qatari decisionmakers' speeches from 2009 to 2015; (b) the change and/or continuity within these roles; and (c) the origins of these role conceptions in a non-causal manner. Using content analysis of Qatari top decisionmakers' statements, the study identified 11 roles that are represented by these decision-makers on behalf of their state in international systems. After identifying the most prevalent roles and their evolution, how Qatar's identity and status correlate with the eleven roles indicated by the decision-makers has been analyzed. Based upon their relative frequency and their content, Qatari roles and status are found to have a relatively strong association. Among the findings that can be drawn from this study is that in the Qatari decision-makers' foreign policy speeches, there are plenty of various roles that go rather beyond the role of mediation and liberation supporters, which are commonly considered the most essential pillars of Qatari foreign policy.