Mary Ann Tetreault

Including contributions from leading scholars from Algeria, France, Germany, India and the United States this book traces the rise and turn to moderation of the New Cultural Identitarian Political Movements, often labelled in the West as fundamentalists. Arguing that culturally based ideologies are often the instruments, rather than the motivating force though which segments of a rising middle strata challenge entrenched elites the expert contributors trace the rise of these movements to changes in their respective countries’ political economy and class structures. This approach explains why, as a result of an ongoing contestation and recreation of bourgeois values, the more powerful of these movements then tend towards moderation. As Western countries realise the need to engage with the more moderate wings of fundamentalist political groups their rationale and aims become of increasing importance and so academics, decision-makers and business people interested in South Asia and the Muslim world will find this an invaluable account.

A sophisticated investigation of the shifting tides of democratic governance in modern Kuwait from 1921 to the present based on interviews both with political activists and members of the political elite, Stories of Democracy sheds light on a wide array of issues concerning Middle Eastern politics and democratic institutions in general. Mary Ann Tetreault explores how various political factions have sought to advance their own notions of Kuwaiti history and politics through distinctive popular appeals: (1) pro-democracy forces focusing on Kuwait's relationship to the universal values of the democratic world around them, and (2) anti-democrats proffering Arab and Muslim religious and cultural traditions. She explores how such dramatic events as the suspension of the Kuwaiti constitution in 1986 and the invasion by Iraq in 1990 occasioned major shifts in the course of the democracy movement. The current running through virtually all of the nation's political drama is the monolithic Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC), used by the government as an instrument of economic strength to safeguard sovereignty in the absence of military might.

Economic and strategic power is not the exclusive province of powerful, developed countries. Kuwait has used its main resource, oil, to integrate itself into the world economy as an autonomous actor rather than as a dependent commodity exporter. This daring economic strategy enabled Kuwait to claim military support from governments hosting its direct investments overseas in 1990-91 following its invasion by Iraq. Based on five years of research, including interviews with more than 200 people, Dr. Tetreault's book analyzes the development of the Kuwait Petroleum Corporation in the context of domestic, regional, and world politics. Contrary to current thinking, she argues that multinational vertical integration under state ownership can be an optimal strategy for oil-exporting, developing countries, particularly those whose resource endowments are otherwise highly limited. This book is directed toward executives in natural resource industries, economic and strategic planners in public and private institutions, and those charged with the formulation and implementation of national, international, and transnational economic policy; in addition, it is of interest to academics specializing in political economy, development, industrial organization, regional and domestic politics, and international relations.