US Congressional Research Service — Kuwait: Governance, Security, and U.S. Policy (RS21513, updated 12 May 2021)

Governance: the report records the death of Amir Sabah Al Ahmad on 29 September 2020, the succession of Nawwaf al-Ahmad, the appointment of Mishal al-Ahmad as Crown Prince, and the December 2020 elections in which the opposition won 24 of 50 seats. It notes that since 2011 Kuwait 'has followed other GCC states in incarcerating and revoking the citizenship of social media and other critics'.

Citizenship and statelessness: noncitizens are about 70 per cent of 4.4 million inhabitants; the government counts approximately 88,000 stateless persons, while Human Rights Watch estimated more than 100,000 in 2018; the 2017 deadline set in 2011 to resolve their status was not met. 'Since 2014, the government has revoked the citizenship of some naturalized Kuwaitis for criticizing the government, but it cannot legally revoke the citizenship of Kuwait-born citizens.' Kuwaiti women married to non-Kuwaitis cannot pass citizenship to their spouses or children.

Trafficking and labour: Tier 3 in the US Trafficking in Persons report for the years to 2015, Tier 2 Watch List in 2016–2018, Tier 2 in 2019 and 2020; repeated reports of abuse of expatriate domestic workers, including the 2018 case that led the Philippines to bar travel to Kuwait.

Terrorism financing: Kuwait was deemed no longer deficient on AML/CFT by the FATF in 2014 and joined the Egmont Group and the US–GCC Terrorist Financing Targeting Center in 2017; the report recalls the US Treasury's 2014 criticism of the appointment of Nayef al-Ajmi as a minister, US sanctions on Kuwaiti individuals under Executive Order 13224 in 2014 and 2017, UN Security Council designations of two Kuwaitis in March 2017, and the 2008 freezing of the Islamic Heritage Restoration Society. It quotes the State Department's view that 'More effective measures are needed to prevent charitable donations being routed to regional terrorist groups'.

Economy: hydrocarbons are about 90 per cent of government export revenue and about 54 per cent of GDP; the budget balances at about $75 a barrel, and deficits have run at about $15 billion a year since 2015.

USE IN A REPORT: an authoritative, non-partisan US government overview — useful to establish context (governance, the security relationship, fiscal position) and, for compliance files, a dated summary of Kuwait's terrorism-financing history and designations.

For compliance and financial-crime specialists: the terrorism-financing section is a convenient dated summary of the designations and supervisory milestones relevant to enhanced due diligence on Kuwait-connected charities and donors, to be read with Kuwait's later FATF grey-listing, recorded elsewhere on this Dossier. For economists: the fiscal break-even of about $75 a barrel and deficits of about $15 billion a year frame the country's post-2014 fiscal position. For legal readers: the statement that citizenship of Kuwait-born citizens cannot lawfully be revoked reflects the position as understood in May 2021 and should be read against subsequent developments. CRS reports are prepared for Congress and are non-partisan; they synthesise State Department and other sources, which should be cited directly for decisive points.