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British foreign policy-makers confronted a difficult quandary when in the late 1930s exportable quantities of oil were discovered in Kuwait. The discovery transformed Kuwait from an obscure corner of the British imperial map significant only for securing the route to India to an important, if not critical, strategic and economic asset. Grasping Kuwait's new-found importance, British strategists quickly realized that they could take full advantage of Kuwait's oil resources only if they were able to exert influence over Kuwait's domestic policies. The structure of Britain's treaties with Kuwait, however, denied such a prospect. In 1899, when the Government of India negotiated the first treaty governing Britain's relationship with Kuwait, Kuwait's only value was its strategic location along the sea lanes to India. Britain consequently had negotiated control only of Kuwait's foreign relations, and had solemnly pledged not to interfere in matters of domestic concern. But as British strategists now discovered, such an arrangement was satisfactory only so long as Kuwait remained a quiet port concerned with pearl diving and localized trade; with oil revenue now flooding Kuwaiti coffers, allowing the Kuwaitis to manage their internal affairs without British guidance was no longer acceptable. The Kuwaitis, however, were hardly prepared to relinquish their right to unimpeded self government. Thus, British interests and politico-legal realities confronted head on. As a result, the British were compelled to try to reconfigure their relationship with Kuwait in such a way that would give them influence over Kuwaiti affairs yet would violate neither their treaty obligations nor emerging liberal international norms. Over the ensuing decade, two strategies were devised: first, promotion of limited liberalization and democratization; and second, when that failed to yield acceptable results, attempts to persuade Kuwait to accept unofficial British advisers. This article examines the motivations behind these strategies, the constraints that necessitated their adoption, and the limitations inherent in their application.
By 1920 Kuwait's place in the British imperial system was fixed. Kuwait was to be considered `an independent Arab State, under British protection, but not a British protectorate'. In practice as well as in law, this meant that while Kuwait was fully autonomous in its internal affairs, Britain was preeminent in foreign affairs. Kuwait's ruler was thus precluded `from receiving foreign representatives, and from ceding, leasing,...