For most Qataris, the world's most watched sporting event represents a chance to offer a new image of their homeland and the wider Middle East. "This is not just for Qatar, but for the whole region," Sheikha Mozah bint Nasser Al Missned, wife of the country's ruler, told Reuters in an interview.

When Qatar was awarded the World Cup for 2022 it was viewed derisively in many Western capitals. Who was this small nation? Where was this country? Why Qatar? Even US President Barack Obama claimed afterwards, "The wrong decision was made."

The latest round of WikiLeaks carried some bad news for Qatari public diplomacy, in the form of US embassy cables stating that the Qatari government is using Al Jazeera as a political bargaining tool. The leaked cables, from 2009, claim that Qatar has offered to stop Al Jazeera broadcasts in Egypt in return for Egypt’s cooperation in reaching a “settlement for the Palestinians”.

The latest round of WikiLeaks carried some bad news for Qatari public diplomacy, in the form of US embassy cables stating that the Qatari government is using Al Jazeera as a political bargaining tool.

Doha has a prestigious Islamic art museum and Abu Dhabi is building offshoots of New York's Guggenheim and Paris' Louvre. But it is film festivals that have emerged as the prestige cultural event of choice since Dubai launched its version in 2004 - poster child for its drive to become a glamorous destination for the international jetset.

"I really like it, and I take it very seriously," [Salma Hayek] tells reporters straining over the barrier for a comment about her role as a judge at this film festival. "It looks like they have built a great home for arts, culture and film." Who would believe she was talking about Qatar, a desert country of 1.7 million people...

Looking at pictures of the statuesque Emir of Qatar (the emphasis is on the first vowel, by the way), and his even more statuesque wife, they seem perfectly at home in London. There’s a reason for that. His Highness Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, to give him his full title, owns large parts of it.

The Clinton Global Initiative and Qatar Foundation International (QFI) have a unique idea for bridging the American-Arabic cultural gap: An online project aimed at bringing American and Qatari teenagers together through crowdsourced translation exercises.