Middle East Research and Information Project

Critical Coverage of the Middle East Since 1971

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Kuwait

Exhibiting the Gulf—Kuwait’s Overlooked Role in Regional Art — Printed matter from the Second Arab Artist Biennial, Kuwait, 1971. Courtesy of the Khalifa & Lidia Qattan Art Museum.

Kuwait

Exhibiting the Gulf—Kuwait’s Overlooked Role in Regional Art

In February 2026, the international Art Basel festival was held for the first time in Qatar and is scheduled to return in January 2027. In November 2026, London’s Frieze art fair is due to launch Frieze Abu Dhabi. The festivals mark a growing trend—mirrored in construction of the

Abdullah Al-Mutairi • 14 min read

From the Oil Weapon to Boycott, Mobilizing in Support of Palestine in the Gulf — Protesters during a solidarity sit-in with the Gaza Strip, in Manama, Bahrain, on November 17, 2023. Mazen Mahdi/AFP via Getty ImagesAn Instagram post by BDS Kuwait calling on people in the region to use the “weapon of boycott” against global companies enabling Israel’s war on Gaza.

MER Article

From the Oil Weapon to Boycott, Mobilizing in Support of Palestine in the Gulf

50 years after the 1973 oil embargo, some Gulf citizens oppose normalization with their wallets.

Samar Alwan • 5 min read

Revisiting MERIP Coverage 30 Years After the First Gulf War — A US soldier standing guard as oil wells burn in the distance in Kuwait on the last night of the Gulf War, February 26, 1991. Andy Clark/Reuters

Current Analysis

Revisiting MERIP Coverage 30 Years After the First Gulf War

MERIP’s coverage of the First Gulf War sought to understand the crisis beyond the battlefield kinetics: from Iraq’s August 1990 invasion of Kuwait to the US-led Desert Storm military operation liberating Kuwait and looking beyond to the regional aftermath. Our authors and editors offered historicall

The Editors • 6 min read

Current Analysis

Crackdowns and Coalitions in Kuwait

The Arab Gulf has seen sweeping arrests of political figures to quell corruption. Even Kuwait has not been immune.

Alex Boodrookas • 15 min read

MER Article

Contesting Welfare State Politics in Kuwait

In October 2013, Kuwait’s Prime Minister Jabir al-Mubarak introduced his government’s agenda with a bombshell -- that “the current welfare state to which Kuwaitis are accustomed is not viable.” [1] Government projections estimate that expenditures will exceed oil revenues in only a few years if spen

Rivka Azoulay, Madeleine Wells • 13 min read

Current Analysis

Boom, Bust and Boom in Dubai

It’s easy to be critical of Dubai [http://newleftreview.org/II/41/mike-davis-fear-and-money-in-dubai] and its socioeconomic model.

Pete Moore • 5 min read

Current Analysis

Youth of the Gulf, Youth of Palestine

I recently came across two accounts of Arab youth that fly in the face of conventional wisdom. One is Kristin Diwan’s issue brief on youth activism [http://www.atlanticcouncil.org/images/publications/Breaking_Taboos.pdf] in the Arab Gulf states for the Atlantic Council, and the other is a documentar

Ted Swedenburg • 6 min read

Current Analysis

Looking for Revolution in Kuwait

In the New York Review of Books, Hussein Agha and Robert Malley imagine the results of the Arab revolts as the possible beginning of a reconstitution of the Ottoman Empire. They see the regional unrest as media-driven, with various partisans asserting their own versions of reality to mobilize popula

Mary Ann Tétreault • 21 min read

MER Article

Guilty Bystanders

The Iran-Iraq war was fought entirely within the boundaries of the two combatant nations, but it was nonetheless a regional war. The war machine of Saddam Hussein’s regime was lubricated with billions of dollars in loans from the Arab oil monarchies, which were anxious to see the revolutionary state

Pete Moore • 15 min read

MER Article

Does a Vote Equal a Voice?

In a second-floor classroom overlooking a flowering courtyard filled with groups of students sharing textbooks and snacks, a young Yemeni woman in her late teens says simply: “[No political party] cares about us, or about the country.” The “us” to whom she refers are the other young women in the roo

Stacey Philbrick Yadav • 15 min read

MER Article

A Tale of Two Kuwaits

Elections in Kuwait are usually festive occasions, but in May 2009 Kuwaitis were frustrated. It was the third set of elections in three years, all coming after the emir dissolved the National Assembly because of confrontations between parliamentarians and the cabinet led by the ruling Sabah family.

Kristen Smith Diwan • 3 min read

Current Analysis

The Day After “Victory”: Kuwait’s 2009 Election and the Contentious Present

The May 2009 parliamentary election in Kuwait produced a number of surprising results. Occurring on the fourth anniversary of the achievement of full political rights for Kuwaiti women, the outcome attracting the most commentary was the victory of four female candidates. But there were other happeni

Mohammed Al-Ghanim, Mary Ann Tétreault • 18 min read