Clinton reacts to Qatar’s World Cup victory
MANAMA, Bahrain—Doha, Qatar, was full of life Thursday night, with men in white robes dancing in the streets, hanging out of car windows, blowing Vuvuzela horns, and participating in all sorts of other non-alcoholic celebrations of Qatar’s victory in securing the 2022 World Cup. Your humble Cable guy landed in Doha Thursday evening on his ...
MANAMA, Bahrain—Doha, Qatar, was full of life Thursday night, with men in white robes dancing in the streets, hanging out of car windows, blowing Vuvuzela horns, and participating in all sorts of other non-alcoholic celebrations of Qatar's victory in securing the 2022 World Cup.
MANAMA, Bahrain—Doha, Qatar, was full of life Thursday night, with men in white robes dancing in the streets, hanging out of car windows, blowing Vuvuzela horns, and participating in all sorts of other non-alcoholic celebrations of Qatar’s victory in securing the 2022 World Cup.
Your humble Cable guy landed in Doha Thursday evening on his way to the IISS 2010 Manama Security dialogue, which began Friday in Bahrain. But before going to bed late Thursday night, we had the chance to party along with the locals, eat some baby camel (true story), and tour a city filled with posters and other advertisements for Qatar’s expensive bid to host the tournament.
Of course, the United States was among the finalists for the hosting honors. So when The Cable sat down Friday for an exclusive interview with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, we couldn’t help but ask what she thought of Qatar’s selection.
Clinton said that the selection of Qatar for 2022, Russia for 2018, and the earlier selection of Brazil for 2014 represent an effort by FIFA, the world soccer body, to spread the honor to new regions and reward new audiences.
"It does make a certain logic, to kind of expand the global reach and give people who love football more than we do — soccer football, not football football — a chance to have their moment," she said.
Clinton did admit to being at least a little unhappy about the decision, and gently alluded to the fact that Qatar is a long way from building all of the stadiums needed for the tournament, not to mention protecting fans from the blistering summer Doha heat.
"Obviously we were disappointed because, look, we could do it tomorrow. We’ve got the facilities already built," she said. "We don’t have to air-condition stadiums."
Josh Rogin covers national security and foreign policy and writes the daily Web column The Cable. His column appears bi-weekly in the print edition of The Washington Post. He can be reached for comments or tips at josh.rogin@foreignpolicy.com.
Previously, Josh covered defense and foreign policy as a staff writer for Congressional Quarterly, writing extensively on Iraq, Afghanistan, Guantánamo Bay, U.S.-Asia relations, defense budgeting and appropriations, and the defense lobbying and contracting industries. Prior to that, he covered military modernization, cyber warfare, space, and missile defense for Federal Computer Week Magazine. He has also served as Pentagon Staff Reporter for the Asahi Shimbun, Japan's leading daily newspaper, in its Washington, D.C., bureau, where he reported on U.S.-Japan relations, Chinese military modernization, the North Korean nuclear crisis, and more.
A graduate of George Washington University's Elliott School of International Affairs, Josh lived in Yokohama, Japan, and studied at Tokyo's Sophia University. He speaks conversational Japanese and has reported from the region. He has also worked at the House International Relations Committee, the Embassy of Japan, and the Brookings Institution.
Josh's reporting has been featured on CNN, MSNBC, C-Span, CBS, ABC, NPR, WTOP, and several other outlets. He was a 2008-2009 National Press Foundation's Paul Miller Washington Reporting Fellow, 2009 military reporting fellow with the Knight Center for Specialized Journalism and the 2011 recipient of the InterAction Award for Excellence in International Reporting. He hails from Philadelphia and lives in Washington, D.C. Twitter: @joshrogin
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