History and Government of Internal Security in Kuwait

Abstract

The al-Sabah rulers’ distribution of Kuwait’s oil wealth to the Kuwaiti population has been a principal method for maintaining stability inside the shaykhdom since the mid-twentieth century. However, the same oil resources that have contributed to stability in Kuwait also have generated distinct internal security problems. This chapter traces Kuwait’s contemporary internal security predicament, and the national security apparatus set up to address it, back to the 1930s, when the Kuwaiti ruler, Shaykh Ahmad al-Jabir al-Sabah, began to profit from oil concessions.