On the page below you will find a selection of articles from the GSN archive. Please note that while some of the content is free to access, all items preceded by a padlock symbol (
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2010 Kuwait archive
2008-2009 Kuwait archive
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2005 Kuwait archive
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Kuwaiti left sees Saadoon as potential ally
Deep differences on economic issues must be overcome for a new secular reform movement to become a reality.
Issue 771, 9 December 2005. more
Al-Sabah battle royal exasperates impatient and politically savvy Kuwaitis
Time to sort out the row say MPs and commentators who do not want to see reform held back by the ruling family’s internal squabbles.
Issue 770, 25 November 2005. more
Televised bid opening proposed as Project Kuwait aims to convince public and business opinion
Oil managers see the northern oilfields revamp as their chance to show foreign investors and domestic voters that Kuwait can establish a benchmark of quality development.
Issue 770, 25 November 2005. more
Question mark over reform after independents’ success in parliamentary committee elections
The new prominence of independents should reduce the pressure on government but could also slow the progress of less popular but important legislation through the Kuwaiti National Assembly.
issue 768, 28 October 2005. more
Apache crews get familiar
The first of 16 AH-64D Apache Longbow multi-role combat helicopters has been delivered by The Boeing Company and is available for use by Kuwaiti ground crew, who will undertake qualification tests in Arizona. It gives a further boost to the equipment’s use across the region following questions about the AH-64D’s performance in Iraq.
issue 768, 28 October 2005. more
Sheikh Salem’s frankness forces Al-Sabah family rifts on Kuwait’s political agenda
Rarely have the internal affairs of a modern ruling family been so publicly debated, putting the nature of Al-Sabah rule on the wider political agenda. Succession issues remain unresolved, but the longer-term signs are that Kuwait is looking to a new social/political compact to regulate how the ruling family and wider political system interact.
Issue 767, 14 October 2005. more
Kuwaiti banks will cope with Western competition, but long-term challenges remain
Big foreign banks’ arrival promises less change than first appeared likely for the financial community, but that does not mean Kuwaiti institutions can rest on their laurels as the GCC edges towards the single currency era.
issue 767, 14 October 2005. more
Kuwait’s militant tendency: Jihadist activity
A listing of recent episodes involving underground Jihadist groups in Kuwait. Analysis of this data shows that while Kuwait has not been the victim of militant attacks by home-grown extremists in the same way or scale that Saudi Arabia has suffered, it nonetheless has uncovered a problem with an extremist minority.
Issue 765, 16 September 2005. more
Public listing aspirations for Kuwait’s international oil company
Kufpec’s management still awaits the verdict of financial advisors, but the Kuwaiti state company hopes to capitalise on emerging local enthusiasm for investment in the upstream sector.
Issue 765, 16 September 2005. more
IMF endorses Kuwait’s reform strategy but warns that spending growth is “not sustainable”
A supportive but plainspoken Article IV report highlights awkward future challenges and serious present weaknesses in an outwardly rosy picture.
Issue 762, 29 July 2005. more
Costs attach to Kuwait’s gender segregation
Implementing a conservative social approach to education does not come cheap – and male students also pay a price, as a Kuwaiti women’s delegation visiting London has been pointing out.
Issue 761, 15 July 2005. more
GSN View: Can Kuwait exploit the momentum generated by female vote move?
To say that women in Kuwait have had a good start to the summer would be something of an understatement. In May, in a surprise government triumph, the National Assembly approved the law according women full political rights to vote and stand for office (GSN 758/7). Prime minister Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmed Al-Jaber Al-Sabah has since wasted no time in appointing a first female cabinet minister, Massouma Al-Mubarak. A Shiite – whose arrival thus restores the traditional Shia cabinet representation absent since the resignation in January of information minister Mohammed Abu Al-Hassan – she has assumed the planning and administrative development portfolio.
Issue 760, 24 June 2005. more
Sheikh Sabah’s boldness pays off at last to win Kuwaiti women the vote
A victory at last for Kuwaiti reformists, with the appointment of a first female minister romised following the passage of the breakthrough political rights law. The surprise development on 16 May was a triumph for Prime Minister Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmed, who showed what can be done if the government goes for broke.
Issue 758, 27 May 2005.
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Kuwait reform credibility shaken by parliamentary stumbles
Failure to give women voting rights in local elections is a symbolic setback for the government that imperils the wider momentum for change. With further delays expected to reformist legislation such as the Project Kuwait northern oil fields scheme, the political impasse is provoking questions about Prime Minister Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmed’s leadership style and Kuwait’s more long-term direction.
Issue 757, 13 May 2005. more
Education at the heart of Kuwait’s new economic agenda as national employment concerns mount
Faced with the critical need to get locals into viable private sector jobs, policy-makers are increasingly aware that reform may have to start in the classroom rather than the workplace.
Issue 757, 13 May 2005. more
Kuwaiti feminists await municipal voting verdict
Women campaigners will pack the public gallery of Kuwait’s National Assembly on 2 May to watch MPs take a crucial second reading decision on a bill that would introduce female political rights for municipal elections.
On first reading, on 19 April, the bill was endorsed by 26 votes to 20, with three abstentions. But so often disappointed in the past, female activists are nervous as they await the outcome of the crucial second vote.
Issue 756, 29 April 2005. more
Make or break time for Kuwait’s reform agenda
It’s crunch time for Kuwait’s modernisation drive, with the National Assembly set to vote within weeks on women’s political rights and plans to bring IOCs into the northern oilfields. There is still speculation that parliament could be dissolved if it blocks these emblematic reforms.
Issue 755, 15 April 2005. more
Baghdadi case spotlights media freedom controversy
An appeal by Kuwaiti academic Dr Ahmed Al-Baghdadi against his conviction over a newspaper column setting out trenchantly independent views on education threatens to become a cause célèbre in the campaign to block a heavy-handed draft press bill.
With the Kuwait Bar Association forming a 17-strong team to fight to Al-Baghdadi’s cause, what was just an individual case is gathering public momentum in a country traditionally proud of its vigorous press and freedom of speech.
Issue 755, 15 April 2005. more
Project Kuwait: Ban on agents may tilt the balance in parliament
A transparency measure sought by MPs for more than two years might be enough to secure the passage of legislation bringing IOCs into Kuwait’s northern oilfields.
Issue 755, 15 April 2005. more
Women’s rights are back
A government call for the National Assembly to hold a special debate has signalled that political rights for women are back on the agenda. This appears to have been prompted by the successful passage of the new Municipal Law through its first reading, and a motion presented in Parliament by a group of ten liberal, Shiite and independent MPs challenging the constitutionality of the Election Law.
Issue 752, 25 February 2005. more
Shootouts add to death toll: the scale of Kuwait’s jihadi threat is unclear but worrying
A firm security crackdown, backed by a strong parliamentary consensus against violence, may have curbed the immediate terrorist threat, but it is far from certain that this will be enough to defeat an extremist movement that has proved surprisingly resilient.
Issue 751, 11 February 2005. more
GSN View: Shifting perspectives mean Kuwaiti militants pose a greater threat
A major shift in the way younger Gulf Arabs view the world is tragically reflected in Kuwait’s security crisis, analysed at length in GSN’s Politics and security section (see Politics & Security). It is a threat that no Gulf state can ignore.
Issue 751, 11 February 2005. more
Don’t indulge the militant mindset, say Kuwait’s beleaguered liberals
With some 30 Islamist suspects under investigation after a shootout in Umm Al-Haiman, and the discovery of bomb-making equipment in that southern town and in Jaber Al-Ali, liberal critics have accused the Kuwaiti authorities of failing to take the threat of hard-line Islamism seriously enough.
Issue 750, 28 January 2005. more
National Assembly scrutiny ‘within three months’ for Project Kuwait
It has been stalled for so long, but senior officials in parliament, as well as the government, believe that, this time, the northern oilfields scheme will go ahead
Issue 750, 28 January 2005. more
Militant violence – the real Islamist threat in Kuwait
With more than 30 locals and Saudis detained for questioning in connection with suspected terrorsim and possible links to Al-Qaeda, the Kuwaiti authorities can be under no illusions about the persistence of the threat now posed by Islamist extremists, however tiny a minority they represent. It is thought the militants were planning attacks on US military based in Kuwait and in Iraq – where, it is now confirmed, some Kuwaitis have already died fighting in the insurgent campaign against American forces. But the violence has now come closer to home, with the death of two policemen in a shootout with militants in Hawalli, a usually relaxed inner suburb of Kuwait City.
Issue 749, 14 January 2005. more
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Al-Sabah promotion
Sheikh Salem Al-Ali Al-Salem Al-Sabah, head of Kuwait’s National Guard, has been named second in seniority within the ruling Al-Sabah family, after months of internal discussion.
Having twice publicly spoken out on the need for unity and an end to rivalries between family members, the 73-year old Sheikh Salem now appears to have been accepted by all factions as the best man to resolve a tussle over the long-term succession.
Issue 747, 10 December 2004. more
A watershed in an angry relationship
Kuwait was alone among Arab countries to fail to provide an official reaction to Yasser Arafat’s death. It was the only Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) state to fail to commemorate the Palestinian Authority (PA) president’s death with a three-day period of mourning,
Issue 746, 26 November 2004. more
Women’s rights back on the agenda
Emir Sheikh Jaber Al-Ahmed Al-Sabah was present in the National Assembly on 26 October to hear Prime Minister Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmed Al-Sabah set out the government’s programme for the new parliamentary session, with women’s political rights and economic liberalisation at the heart of the agenda
Issue 744, 29 October 2004. more
Kuwaitis wait on hard facts about leadership shifts and big oil
Speculation about succession, the Al-Sabah pecking order and manoeuvrings around Project Kuwait have set rumour mills spinning as Kuwaitis wait for more solid indicators about their future.
Issue 743, 15 October 2004. more
Kuwait cracks the whip on Jihadists, preachers
A Kuwait Security Service round up of radical Egyptian and Kuwaiti clerics showed the authorities using coercion as well as co-option to tackle the Islamist challenge.
Issue 741, 17 September 2004. more
First indication of F/A-18 buy
The US Congressional Research Service announced in mid-August that Kuwait has expressed interest in purchasing ten additional Boeing F/A-18 multi-role aircraft to add to its current fleet of 39 F/A-18C/D models.
Issue 740, 27 August 2004. more
Privatisation plan may disappoint
Details have emerged of Kuwait’s plans to relaunch its much-anticipated privatisation drive, but the draft – drawn up by the ministerial Economic and Legal Joint Committee – may once more disappoint potential investors.
Issue 740, 27 August 2004. more
UK’s Kuwaiti defence deal subject of claim, counter-claim
Prominent Sunni Islamist MP Nasser Al-Sane claims the Kuwaiti government has cancelled KD420m ($1.4bn)-worth of defence procurement from the UK, including the command, control, communications and computer intelligence (C41) deal against which he has been campaigning. But the Defence Export Services Organisation (DESO) – a UK government agency responsible for arms exports – has said it believes the purchases were only postponed. Nor has the Kuwaiti Ministry of Defence confirmed Al-Sane’s claim. As GSN went to press, calls were not being returned and the exact position was not yet clear.
Issue 738, 9 July 2004. more
Kuwaitis divided over reforms, personal politics
Kuwait’s elite is playing politics again,with moderate and urbane Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed Al-Sabah said to be under pressure from other family members to accept a move to the less prestigious but more politically exposed post of finance minister, replacing the ailing and under pressure Mahmoud Al-Nouri, who has effectively resigned and is in the UK, ostensibly for medical treatment.
Issue 736, 11 June 2004. more
GSN View: Kuwait, in need of reforms push, requires clarity about succession
The latest bout of political arm-wrestling in Kuwait is an advertisement for the virtues of long-term clarity over the path of succession in Gulf monarchies. A fierce debate over the wide-ranging and sometimes controversial reform agenda is becoming confused and overlaid with the internal manoeuvrings of the extensive ruling Al-Sabah family where the long-term path of inheritance to power remains undecided.
Issue 736, 11 June 2004. more
Kuwait government lines up $7bn project’s terms. Will MPs agree them?
Kuwait Oil Company has now drafted the model operating service agreement (OSA) under which international oil companies will become involved in the $7bn Project Kuwait drive to more than double output from the emirate’s northern oilfields, to 900,000 b/d. The government has selected three bidding groups – led by ChevronTexaco, BP and ExxonMobil – to contend for the contract, with the final bid deadline likely in August/September.
Issue 735, 28 May 2004. more
Kuwaiti reformists seek governance breakthroughs
As Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmed Al-Jaber Al-Sabah approaches his first anniversary as premier, reformists hope he will use the summer break to reshuffle the cabinet and beef up an inadequate government machine.
Kuwaitis are at last beginning to unpick the logjam of conflicting political views and interests that has held back modernisation, and favoured sectional manoeuvring at the expense of long-term strategy. Hostility towards the involvement of foreign groups in the banking and oil sectors appears to be fading. Voters and parliamentarians are increasingly aware of the need to attract capital and expertise if Kuwait is not to become a Gulf backwater, however wealthy.
Issue 733, 30 April 2004. more
Kuwaiti MPs rattle public finance officials
Amid speculation about the possible transformation of his department into a new ministry of the economy, Finance Minister Mahmoud Abdelkhaliq Al-Nouri has survived a parliamentary confidence vote. But it was an unconvincing victory – by only 25 votes to 21 – and there is speculation that before long Nouri could be reshuffled.
Issue 731, 2 April 2004. more
Government pushes for Project Kuwait breakthrough
Kuwaiti’s drive to take crude production capacity up to 4m b/d by 2020 is fuelling its determination to develop the northern oilfields, despite the scepticism of parliamentarians. The 4m bbl target cannot be achieved from the Burgan field, which accounts for three-quarters of the current 2.5m b/d output.
Issue 730, 19 March 2004. more
Despite defeat at the polls, liberals’ economic views gain ground in Kuwait
Though last July’s vote was a disaster for liberals in Parliament, some of their ideas for reform seem to be catching hold as Kuwait moves into the post-Saddam period. Foreign banks are among the first to gain from a wider shift in Kuwaiti thinking.
Issue 726, 23 January 2004. more
After Saddam, Kuwait still casts a wary eye north
Forged in the aftermath of the first Gulf war, Kuwait’s armed forces now face a new set of threats in the Gulf. The fifth article in GSN’s series on Gulf militaries looks at what has changed after the fall of Baathist Iraq and Kuwait’s designation by the USA as a ‘major non-NATO ally’. Perhaps most important, some things have stayed the same.
Issue 726, 23 January 2004. more
See Also
KUWAIT: A threat assessment
2010 Kuwait archive
2008-2009 Kuwait archive
2006-2007 Kuwait archive
2005 Kuwait archive
2004 Kuwait archive
2003 and earlier Kuwait archives
Return to main GSN's World Kuwait page
Select another country
