Elites, Multinational Oil Corporations, and Economic Nationalism: The Case of the Darwish Al Fakhro Family in Qatar 1935-1972

This study aims to highlight the role of the Qatari Darwish Al Fakhro family, as one of the distinguished elites in the Gulf in achieving the principles of economic nationalism related to the economy of the oil industry in Qatar, its relationship with multinational oil companies, and the gains that these elites reaped from the policy of economic nationalism.
The study identified the symbolic starting point in 1935, the year that witnessed the signing of the Qatari oil concession with the Anglo-Persian Company, and the study stopped at 1972, the year in which the business assets of the family company were divided among the members of the Darwish, and this study relied mainly on papers The Darwish family and the information about this family that was published in the book Bright Pages from the Life of the Noble Sheikh Qassem bin DarwishFakhro (1319 AH - 1413 AH), which was published by the Barzan Qatari Center in 2013, in addition to some documents of the Qatar Petroleum Company affiliated to the Anglo Company – In Persian, which is currently in the British Archives in London, the researcher also used some of the various Arab references related to the subject of the study, and based on the vision and principles of the French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu and Maclean M, and Harvey C. regarding the study of elite structures and their relationship to power, reproduction and practices, the information was presented in critical analytical descriptive format; To illustrate how the Darwish family was able to control political, social and cultural power in Qatar between the fifties and seventies, and to clarify the role of these elites in achieving the principles of economic nationalism with regard to the economy of the oil industry in Qatar, and its relationship with multinational oil companies, and the economic, social and cultural gains that this elite reaped from The policy of economic nationalism, and the study confirms in its conclusion that economic nationalism was beneficial to the Darwish family as one of the economic elites as much as it was beneficial to the political elite and to the development of the State of Qatar, as it was beneficial to the multinational company (ie, the Anglo-Persian company represented by Qatar Petroleum).