How Kuwait is Surviving the Gulf Crisis

Next week, on August 2, is the 27^th anniversary of the day Saddam’s forces stormed across Iraq’s southern border with the goal of annexing their small neighbor, Kuwait. It took only two days to seize the entire country. During the seven-month occupation, Iraqi soldiers tortured and killed hundreds of civilians, and took thousands hostage. The country was pillaged. When the Iraqis were forced to retreat by the U.S.-led international coalition, they set fire to 700 Kuwaiti oil wells, leaving a path of vast economic and environmental destruction.

The Iraqi invasion and occupation of 1990-1991 remains a core component of the Kuwaiti national consciousness. More than any other event in the country’s modern history, the experience exposed the enormous vulnerability of being a small, resource-rich state surrounded by much larger, more powerful neighbors in a volatile region. It has shaped the way Kuwait’s ruling al-Sabah family, other political elites, and the general public think about regional security. This historical experience frames Kuwait’s approach to the current Gulf crisis that pits three Gulf states—Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain—plus Egypt, against a small, fourth Gulf state, Qatar.