The Arab Spring revolutions bring attention to the importance of legitimacy for the long-term stability and capability of political regimes. The concept of legitimacy is one of the most important concepts in political science. Yet it has been remarkably understudied, in general and in the Arab world in particular. As Schlumberger (2010) notes, “Despite its centrality to political life, legitimacy in the nondemocratic Arab world has not been studied in any encompassing manner for more than 30 years.” The 2011 revolutions prove Hudson’s (1977) point of three decades ago: “The central problem in the Arab world today is political legitimacy.” This paper unpacks the concept of political legitimacy to study not only how legitimization strategies affect government capacity and stability, but also to address a key question through an in-depth case study —- how Qatar has been able to create and maintain its legitimacy, in the eyes of citizens and expats, regional neighbors and global partners, throughout the Arab Spring. I follow Beetham’s (1991) tripartite definition of legitimacy: power is legitimate when it conforms to established rules, the rules can be justified by reference to shared beliefs, and there is evidence of subordinate consent to the power relationship. I classify sources of political legitimacy into four main categories: developmental (economic and distributional), governmental (bureaucratic and democratic), sociological (national pride and happiness, social trust and capital, and positive attitudes through areas such as human development, use of cultural symbols, and local media/advertising), and international (diplomacy and media outreach). The research puzzle: How can we explain the success of Qatar in creating and maintaining its legitimacy in the face of rapid socioeconomic modernization (Huntington 1968) and the Arab Spring (Huntington 1991, Brinks and Coppedge 2006)? How can the case study of Qatar help unpack the concept of political legitimacy in rentier regimes to address more than the state access to natural resource wealth? Using qualitative (media analysis of the four major local Arabic newspapers, Qatari blogs, and political cartoons, as well as personal interviews) and quantitative analysis (survey data of selected populations within Qatar), I will explain how Qatar succeeded where others failed. Why Qatar? Qatar is a good example case of a regime creating and maintaining legitimacy during rapid socioeconomic change and a regional zeitgeist of revolution. My work provides new information on an understudied yet crucial country and explains how some regimes successfully avoided the Arab Spring.