Since Sheikh Hamed came to power in a bloodless coup in the mid 1990s the country has become vastly richer thanks to careful exploitation of its huge gas wealth. The country has also liberalised, allowing alcohol to be drunk (albeit within strict parameters), women have been given the right to drive, limited democracy has been introduced (with more steps planned) and now even churches have been built - on land donated by the Amir.

Qatar is also undergoing massive development. In addition to massive investment of infrastructure, the country is also investing in sport, five star hotels, a huge tourism complex (named Sports City) and even an artificial island for luxury villas and apartments.

In many ways Qatar appears to be following in the footsteps of Dubai. However, unlike Dubai, Qatar does not need to take on huge debt to fund its transformation from an oil and gas dependent state into one with multiple sources of revenue. Its revenues are so huge that it has trouble spending them all - hence the huge funds being invested abroad. These funds should, in the not too distant future, make the country independent of its oil resources.

However, Qatar is not just focussed on managing its huge wealth. It is also seeking to place itself firmly on the map - not easy when you measure just one hundred miles along.

That’s why they held the Asian Olymic Games - widely acclaimed as a success - and hold numerous sporting events through the year, from the fencing grand prix to the Qatar Grand Masters.

It has also been helped by its controversial new channel, Al Jazeera, which always seems to attract attention - albeit, not always positive attention! In fact, Al Jazeera seems to have irritated all factions, from Arab governments, Western allies and even Al Qaeda itself. Interestingly, one of the few countries in the Gulf not to have thrown out Al Jazeera journalists from its borders is Israel.

Their efforts recently scored a huge success when they achieved a compromise between the factions of a country on the verge of Lebanon. The warring factions were bundled into a plane, trundled off to Doha and sat down in the Sheraton Hotel where eventually, with lots of effort from Qatar government ministers, a compromise was reached.

Qatar was lauded all over the world, and there are even murmurings that perhaps they could be successful in helping to resolve the Israel-Palestinian crisis. After all, they are one of the few countries that have positive relations with both the Palestinian governments and with Israel.