KEVIN CONNOLLY | BBC-NYT SYNDICATE

IF you seek a monument to Qatari ambition and achievement in Doha, look up. The capital of the wealthy Gulf state has transformed itself with dizzying speed from a dreary desert port into a kind of Manhattan with sand.

Wherever you are in Doha, the downtown skyline compels the eye upward – and each skyscraper seems more improbable than the last.

One resembles a towering goblet girdled in what looks like gigantic, chainlink fencing fashioned from blue neon.

Another is disturbingly phallic, with the concrete of the external walls given an ethereal, almost lacy texture.

The scale of the buildings – and the speed with which they were built – proclaims the determination of Qatar to build a global profile to match the skyline.

The Palestinian politician Mustafa Barghouti, who watches Qatar from afar, told me Doha used to look very different.

“I remember a time when there were only two high-rise buildings in Qatar,” he said. “Then you could see that there was an astonishing growth and actually an explosion of growth. And I think with that kind of economic wealth, Qatar started to be interested in having much more influence, first in the Arab world and then internationally.” This is not merely about some metaphorical aspiration to influence.

Qatar has moved with determination to build a kind of power that will be felt first through the Middle East and then in the wider world.

At the foundation of it all lies fabulous wealth. By some measures, Qatar is the richest nation in the world as determined by the share of GDP per head, and any country that finds itself in that position will perhaps naturally crave the diplomatic clout that comes with it.

So the Emir His Highness Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al Thani has been a bold and assertive player in the Arab Spring. He helped the rebels fighting to unseat Moamer Qadhafi in Libya. And he has called for armed Arab intervention to stop Syria from spiralling into bloody chaos.

The very presence in Doha of the Middle East expert Gerd Nonemann, dean of the local branch of Georgetown University, is testament to the ability of Qatari wealth to attract leading foreign colleges to the Gulf.

Nonemann says Qatar did not inspire or lead the popular uprisings that transformed the Middle East from Tahrir Square to Tunisia this time last year. It just recognised that change was inevitable and was swifter and sharper in its reactions than anyone else.

“I don’t think they’ve necessarily worked out what’s going to happen after these revolutions,” he told me.

“They just recognised this was a pressure- cooker situation that was going to explode in someone’s face at some time,” Nonemann said. “They just recognised that it was much better to take the lid off and be seen to act as a facilitator.” The flagship of Qatari influence across the Middle East is the satellite TV channel Al-Jazeera, which sees itself as the station that transmitted the anger of the Arab streets directly into the palaces where crumbling dictators trembled behind high walls.

In cheering on the rebels in Libya and siding with the protesters in Tahrir Square, HH the Emir was no doubt exposing himself to the charge that he was encouraging change abroad.

But Mostefa Souag, managing director of the company’s Arabic news service, argues persuasively that Al-Jazeera has been a force for good.

“The media is all about soft power. If you are a small country and you want to be successful, you don’t need warships or airplanes – you need soft power,” he said. “Soft power is media, science and culture ... I believe that HH the Emir was aware of this, and I believe that’s a great vision.” If it’s Qatari diplomacy and soft power that have been moving forces in the Arab Spring, it’s the wealth that springs from liquefied natural gas that is raising its profile in the wider world.

The Qatar motor show is probably the only one in the world where you find as many Rolls-Royces, Bugattis and Lamborghinis in the car park as you do on the manufacturers’ display stands.

And as Europe endures what it hopes will be a short-term crisis, Qatar’s powerful sovereign wealth fund is seeking long-term opportunities.

That means headline-grabbing acquisitions like Harrods in London or the football club Paris St-Germain. But it means lots of European real estate that will yield income far into the future, too.

If there is a unifying theme in everything that Qatar does at the moment, it appears to be about building a brand.

There’s a good chance that many Europeans and Americans had never heard of the emirate until it won the right to hold the football World Cup in 2022.

The average summer temperature here is 45 degrees Celsius. But Qataris are confident that when the world has enjoyed a successful tournament in air-conditioned stadiums, it will remember Qatar’s wealth and can-do mentality.

In the meantime, there is diplomacy.

Qatar has already built something of a reputation as the country that can talk to anyone – to Hamas and Israel, as well as to the US and Iran.

It’s about to put those diplomatic credentials to the test, allowing the Taliban to open an office in Doha in the hope that might lead to talks with the US – who have a huge airbase here – over the future of Afghanistan.

It is an intriguing prospect – and it’s smart politics too. If it fails – well, everyone expected it to fail. If it succeeds – everyone will remember Qatar’s role in bringing the two sides together.

Either way, it’s a safe bet that Qatar will continue doing everything it can to raise its global profile. The challenge for the future is to keep that ability to talk to everyone as it does.