Katie Burton

Some countries are born geographically lucky; Singapore is one of them. Occupying one main island and 63 islets, it rests on the very southern tip of the Malay peninsula, offering a haven to passing sailors with an interest in getting from East to West, or back the other way.

The world’s fourth-largest democracy has had a turbulent decade. In 2016, thirteen years of left-leaning rule under the Workers’ Party came to a bruising end. Then-president Dilma Rousseff was impeached for breaking budget laws, while former- president Lula, once described by Barrack Obama as the ‘world’s most popular president’, was later imprisoned for corruption. Then, in 2018, came the election of Jair Bolsonaro, a right-wing provocateur. Since then, the political pendulum has swung once more.

By But what motivates this small Gulf state in its actions on the world stage? And what makes it so important a partner to superpowers? After all, Qatar is tiny. At 11,637 square kilometres, it’s 1/20th the size of the UK. There are only around 300,000 Qatari citizens, about the same population as the city of Nottingham. The total population is 2.7 million, but the majority are foreign workers. Even including them, the country contains less than a third of the people living in London.