Matt Bevan

for weeks in the 80s in sydney i remember petrol rationing was done by state governments we all know from iraq from afghanistan a war that's one month that becomes six months that becomes six years that becomes a decade but i think that in one very important way what we're watching now is different and that's that all of these things are happening at once

Every day, things just get more and more chaotic.

And one person in particular is leading that chaos.

The way the world operates is changing in a way that will be with us for a long time.

Since the jungle time started, it's clear the old rules no longer apply.

And I think the best example of where this shift is hitting the hardest isn't in Iran, Israel, the US or Lebanon, but in Qatar.

Qatar, where the world's biggest gas plant is.

Qatar has spent the last 50 years following the rules of the stable times.

Meticulously planning, scheming and plotting to make itself immune to global instability.

To make sure that something like this... Iran targeted Qatari gas infrastructure in retaliation to a strike on its major gas field.

Can never happen.

And yet, it has.

Why?

Well, because unfortunately for Qatar, we're no longer in the stable times, we're in the jungle times.

And meticulous planning doesn't count for anything in the jungle.

Today, the story of the elaborate, decades-long, trillion-dollar scheme that Qatar hoped would protect them, and what its failure tells us about what we are about to face.

I'm Matt Bevan.

This is If You're Listening.

Welcome to The Jungle Times.

I love old atlases.