Beyond Instrumentalism: Arab Nationalism and the Foreign Policy of Kuwait in the 1960s and 1970s

Abstract

The international relations literature on Arabism overwhelmingly views the behavior of Arab states through an instrumentalist lens. This article departs from this approach, arguing that Kuwait's Arabist foreign policy in the 1960s and 1970s largely stemmed from its distinctive history, which produced a prevailing pan-Arabist current in society evident in the mainstream press and official discourse. A combined historical-sociological and constructivist approach is used to disentangle the relationship between history, identity, and foreign policy.