Part One: Will Sheikh Tamim Rebalance Qatar’s Foreign Policy?

The decision to replace Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim as head of the Qatar Investment Authority, the emirate's sovereign wealth fund has drawn attention for a number of reasons. Hamad had for years been the architect of Qatar's investment policy, an assignment handed to him by former emir Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani.

While the appointment of Ahmad al-Sayed as the new head of the fund was quick and decisive in terms of timing and implications, it was measured and careful in its content, given that Sayed had served as the chief executive officer of Qatar Holding, the sovereign fund's investment arm. Sayed is well known to banks and financial institutions, and the country's production partners knew him to be a close collaborator of Sheikh Hamad and a member of his work team. His new appointment is an additional indication of the continuity within Qatar's political and financial institutions and a message of reassurance to production partners, confirming that the transfer of power to a younger generation is moving ahead by leaps and bounds, but also quietly and firmly, spreading the seeds of change and modernization.

The previous era was characterized by a mixing of Qatar’s foreign policy and investment policy. In short, foreign policy was a lever for investment policy, while the latter served as the backbone of the former. This is not so odd, given that Sheikh Hamad directed both policies, moving deftly from diplomatic hallways to boards of directors, crafting Qatari foreign and investment policies, which though different, were integrated.