Kuwait

Over the past five years, Kuwait has witnessed considerable internal political confrontation.

In a time of fiscal consolidation and regional economic reforms, Kuwait has embraced regulatory reform to boost its private sector and attract foreign investment. For example, Kuwait’s privatization laws are among the Gulf Cooperation Council’s most explicit and generous toward access to the sale of state assets to citizens. Kuwait’s success in reducing its fiscal...

Exceptional among Gulf states, Kuwait’s National Assembly has a powerful role in decision making. Yet some Kuwaitis find it difficult to monitor the activities of all 50 members of parliament. This is what compelled Abdullah Al-Khonaini and Hamad Al-Judai to establish Raqib50. The first online parliamentary watch tool in Kuwait, Raqib50 keeps track of not...

Altitude sickness, frostbite, and severe weather conditions are just a few of the obstacles climbers have to overcome en route to the summit of Mount Everest. Women from the Gulf have endured all of that, in addition to challenging conservative norms at home. “Convincing my parents to let me go on this expedition was even...

Madeenah was established to capture the fast-paced urban development in Kuwait that has flourished since the discovery of oil. It attempts to generate a mindful sense of belonging to Kuwait City and its diverse inhabitants by curating public walking tours. Through its cultural tours, Madeenah cultivates an appreciation for urban development in the city. The...

Kuwaiti Foreign Minister Sabah Khaled al-Sabah’s visit to Tehran on January 25 was officially billed as a bilateral meeting, but also widely reported to have included a broader outreach to Iran by Kuwait’s partners in the Gulf Cooperation Council, including Iran’s major regional rival, Saudi Arabia. The GCC was at least in part responding to...

Dissatisfied with existing political dynamics, a group of young activists established a think tank as a new approach to effectively contribute to Kuwaiti politics. The Rai Institute for Strategic Studies and Research is the first private think tank in Kuwait. It aims to provide fact-based research and analysis to better inform the issues influencing, and...

On November 26, Kuwait held parliamentary elections, its fourth in just five years, in a vote that marked the return of the opposition after nearly four years of electoral boycotts. Despite the handicap of a new one vote electoral system, and the short time for preparation due to the early dissolution of the Parliament, the...