ABSTRACT
Education and, for want of a better expression, Kuwait-isation, were the twin watchwords of state policy from the moment that oil royalties began to accrue. Kuwait's revenue graph shows some sharp jumps and flat spots, associated with changes in the KOC concession agreement, with fluctuations in world demand, and with the international political events that have pervaded the country's post-oil history. The concept of the welfare state is part and parcel of the paternalist nature of Kuwait's shaikhdom, though it owes a great deal in inspiration and form to Western models. The growth of oil output and ancillary industries continually outstripped local resources of skilled manpower and essential materials. Kuwait has opened its doors to both, maintaining diplomatic relations with any who are willing to accept its live-and-let-live philosophy. But, economics and politics are inevitably, and often dangerously, related.
