16BEFORE OILinterest and protection of the West. This protection undergirds the
hard security needs of all six Gulf monarchies.
KUWAITKuwait is a triangular swatch of rippling sands wedged between Iraq and
Saudi Arabia. The diminutive state is dominated by Kuwait City, a pearl-
ing and merchant trading haven that has thrived on that spot since the
1700s. The al- Sabah family has supplied each of the fifteen sheikhs who
have ruled Kuwait since the 1750s, including Sheikh Mubarak the Great,
who reigned from 1896 to 1915 and from whom all Kuwaiti rulers must
be descended.^10
Kuwait owes its autonomy as an independent sheikhdom to the al-
Sabah family’s prescience in allying with the Ottomans, the British, and,
later, Washington, thus preventing neighboring powers from swallow-
ing it up. Power flowed to the al- Sabah by virtue of the family’s good rela-
tions with merchants brokering trade among India, Iraq, and the Levant.
Trade opportunities attracted the British East India Company in the late
1700s, and the company, in turn, enhanced stability and prosperity. In
1899, Kuwait became a formal British “protected state,” enshrining al-
Sabah control.^11 The discovery of oil in 1938 left the ruling family in
undisputed power.
Modernity came quickly. Social- welfare pacts established in the 1940s
yielded generous citizen benefits that became the envy of the Gulf.
Kuwait’s success in boosting living standards— and the swagger of
Kuwaiti citizens who received them— ignited expectations across the
region. Kuwaiti sheikhly patronage became the model for the state-
society social contracts in all the oil monarchies. Oil revenues also
allowed Kuwait to wean itself from dependence on Britain. When the
British departed in 1961, Kuwait declared formal independence.
What sets Kuwait apart from other GCC countries is politics. It
remains the most politically liberal of the six monarchies, with a vibrant
political life and a relatively free press. It is the only Gulf state with an
active parliament that exercises significant power. The downside of these