Kuwait's Political Leadership.

Al-Sabah family has ruled Kuwait since 1751. The ruler is called emir (prince). The office of the emir, Emiri Diwan, is the highest authority in the state. Despite an elected parliamentary system, the emir's powers are absolute. But many subtle changes have occurred since Iraq's 1990 invasion of the emirate and the US-led liberation of Kuwait in early 1991, which make the enforcement of his absolute authority more complicated.

It is still relatively easy for the emir to dissolve the National Assembly (NA) by decree, as he did in March 2009. But he has to decree free elections to the next NA almost immediately as he dissolves the legislature to satisfy the Kuwaitis and the US that he is not suspending the democratic process as a predecessor did in 1976.

Were it not for the US-led war of liberation in early 1991, Kuwait could have remained under Iraqi control. Had the US not moved promptly, Iraq under Saddam's Sunni/Ba'thist dictatorship may also have taken the oil-rich Saudi eastern province and perhaps other GCC states. Now Kuwaitis feel the Iraqi threat is behind them; Saddam's regime collapsed on April 9, 2003, after a swift US-led war. But the US is yet to win the peace in Iraq, and Kuwait now is increasingly worried by the Shi'ite theocracy of Iran and its nuclear and regional ambitions. These ambitious remind the Kuwaitis of Saddam's. But this time, Kuwait is afraid that any US-led attack on Iran could have very dangerous effects on its emirate and the other five members of the GCC.

Opposition groups in Kuwait are equipped with constitutional arguments and external publicity. The latter is effective in getting support from the US and other Western powers committed to democratisation in the Gulf region. In the NA, the majority of MPs can open the government's books on questionable deals and insist on greater accountability among the decision makers. Several scandals have been unearthed since 1992, including allegations of corruption within the defence procurement system. Project Kuwait to develop oilfields in the north has been blocked by the NA since 1994 (see omt26KwtWhoJun29-09 & down26KuwtWhoJun29-09).

The death on Jan. 15, 2006, of Emir Shaikh Jaber al-Ahmad al-Jaber al-Sabah thrust Kuwait into the world headlines. For a week the focus was on the very public internal politics of the ruling family as its scions determined the fate of the succession. The process - in which the then ailing crown prince Shaikh Sa'd al-Abdullah al-Salem al-Sabah saw himself announced and then swiftly deposed as emir by parliament in favour of PM Shaikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah - was not unanimously supported. But it served to highlight both the very best and worst of a political system, one which was both a model and a lesson for other nascent democracies in the region.

The composition of a new cabinet and Shaikh Sabah's choice of his half-brother Shaikh Nawaf al-Ahmad al-Jaber al-Sabah as crown prince and nephew Shaikh Nasser al-Muhammad al-Ahmad al-Jaber al-Sabah as PM became a major talking point among Kuwaitis, and prompted harsh criticism from all shades of the political spectrum.

With the al-Jaber branch of the ruling family filling the three most important positions of state, the informal system of rotation between the al-Salem and al-Jaber groups came to an end. Al-Jabers also pack the cabinet, running the strategically important petroleum, interior, defence, and other portfolios.