Kuwait and Al-Sabah: Tribal Politics and Power in an Oil State

ISBN-13: 9781838605056 / Angielski / Twarda / 2020 / 280 str.

Nether Rivka Azoulay (Leiden University

Opis

The Emirate of Kuwait hardly resembles the city-State it was at the start of the 20th century. The discovery of oil in 1938 rapidly transformed the tiny tribal sheikhdom of the Al-Sabah into a modern oil-producing state where citizens now enjoy one of the highest standards of living in the world. But while much has been written on the reasons why and how the Al-Sabah became a ruling dynasty, little is known about the nature of their authority or its relationship to Kuwait's social structure. This book looks at how previously marginalized communities came to wield political power in the country. The author shows that, despite the magnitude and the rapidity of change in the oil-rich, family-run emirate, it is the pre-oil dynamics of social and political life that dictate how society operates. Examining what this pre-oil society looked like and focusing on the three main groups in Kuwait, hadar (urban dwellers), Shia and badu (tribesmen), the book traces the social and political developments and how they impacted on the decisions and actions of the regime. Part I provides a historical account of the fundamentals of the Al-Sabah's authority structure in Kuwait since the mid-19th century. Part II analyzes the regime-society relations following independence and its consolidation into an oil state until the invasion of Iraq (1961-1990). Part III looks at the rise of the tribal periphery in the politics of Kuwait from the invasion until 2014. The book makes a new argument about the relationship between the ruling elite and the periphery and gets to the heart of the nature of political order and authority for the Al-Sabah dynasty.