On March 17, AGSIW held its Spring 2019 board of directors meeting in Kuwait.
WASHINGTON, March 25, 2019 – On March 17, AGSIW held its spring 2019 board of directors meeting in Kuwait. Members of the board were hosted for a welcome reception at the residence of the U.S. ambassador to Kuwait, Lawrence R. Silverman, and undertook two days of official engagements, including a visit with Nasser Sabah al-Ahmed al-Sabah, first deputy prime minister and minister of defense, Mohammad Sabah Al-Salem Al-Sabah, former deputy prime minister and minister of foreign affairs, and Nasser al-Mohammed al-Ahmed al-Sabah, former prime minister. Members of the board visited the Kuwaiti National Assembly and met with Marzouq Al-Ghanim, speaker of the national assembly. Discussions included frank exchanges around the role of Kuwait in the region, U.S. foreign policy and U.S.-Kuwaiti relations, as well as the role of AGSIW in encouraging thoughtful debate in Washington regarding the Gulf countries.
The visit also served to establish and solidify ties with Kuwaiti institutions such as the Kuwait Fund for the Advancement of Sciences and the Kuwait Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Members of the board also spoke on a panel discussion at the Saud Al-Nasser Al-Sabah Kuwaiti Diplomatic Institute and had interviews with Kuwait TV and the daily newspaper Al-Jarida. The visit concluded with a networking reception with dozens of Kuwaiti civil society representatives and a discussion around youth initiatives and entrepreneurial capacity in Kuwait.
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The Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington (AGSIW), launched in 2015, is an independent, nonprofit institution dedicated to providing expert research and analysis of the social, economic, and political dimensions of the Gulf Arab states and how they impact domestic and foreign policy. AGSIW focuses on issues ranging from politics and security to economics, trade, and business; from social dynamics to civil society and culture. Through programs, publications, and scholarly exchanges the institute seeks to encourage thoughtful debate and inform the U.S. policy community regarding this critical geostrategic region.
Despite gains in bilateral relations and economic ties, one year after the signing of the Abraham Accords, there is an understanding in Israel that the agreements have not yet changed the “rules of the game” on a strategic level in the region.
The TotalEnergies deal with Iraq includes clean energy aspects that are a step in the right direction for the country to develop a more sustainable economy, but the focus is still on oil and gas.
Gulf actors will be paying close attention to the dispute to make sure it does not transition to more direct conflict that could further jeopardize regional stability and strategic Europe-Mediterranean-Africa market linkages.
Through its careful examination of the forces shaping the evolution of Gulf societies and the new generation of emerging leaders, AGSIW facilitates a richer understanding of the role the countries in this key geostrategic region can be expected to play in the 21st century.
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