Qataris know the tale of their nextdoorneighbour Dubai, who by opening its arms to the world subsumed traditional Emirati culture in favour of westernisation, and all the vices that came with it.
"Alpha Centauri B is of course a very special case - it's our nextdoorneighbour, " said Stephane Udry of the Observatory in Geneva and senior author of the paper.
When countries do have a burning desire for nuclear weapons, it can normally be put down to a need for symbolic prowess or the existence of an adversary of some sort be it next-door neighbour or far-off hegemon who already has them.