Qatar

Qatar is the world's richest country per capita, governed by the Al Thani family as an absolute monarchy where the Emir serves as head of state, head of government, and commander of the armed forces. The economy depends almost entirely on liquefied natural gas — Qatar is the world's largest LNG exporter, with the North Field (shared with Iran's South Pars) containing roughly 10% of global proven natural gas reserves. The governance model concentrates all strategic decisions in the Emir and a small circle of advisors, enabling rapid resource deployment (the 2022 World Cup infrastructure was built in roughly a decade) at the cost of accountability mechanisms. Qatar's foreign policy punches far above its population weight (roughly 2.8 million, of whom over 85% are non-citizen workers) through sovereign wealth fund investments (QIA manages roughly $500 billion), media influence (Al Jazeera), and diplomatic mediation in conflicts from Afghanistan to Gaza. The biological parallel is a small organism with outsized environmental impact — a keystone species whose removal would disproportionately affect the LNG market, Middle Eastern diplomacy, and global sports infrastructure.