The Cuban Hospital in Qatar: A Manifestation of the Spirit of Bandung in the 21st Century

Abstract This article looks at a particular transnational project in the realm of health, the Cuban Hospital in Qatar, which connects, in the post-Cold War period, two processes of nation-building taking place in the Third World; namely, the agenda of Cuba’s post-revolutionary government since early-1990s and the development goals envisioned by the new leadership that came to power in Qatar by mid-1990s. The main objective of this article is to understand what the Cuban Hospital in Qatar is or, in other words, to conceptualize the hospital using the available language in the discipline of International Relations. To attain its objective, the article relies upon the concept of the Spirit of Bandung, which points towards a process of identification between political projects implemented by formerly colonized societies in the context of post-coloniality. Such an analysis is based on qualitative research from various Arabic, English, and Spanish sources. Finally, by showing the persistence of the Spirit of Bandung in the early decades of the 21st century, the article contributes to the advancement of postcolonial scholarship within the discipline of International Relations, as well as to the study of Latin America-Middle East relations and the field of Gulf studies.