From then until 2013, Kuwait underwent repeated political crises that produced economic stagnation. Factions in Kuwait generally group as follows. Critics/Opponents

"Liberals. " Sunni Islamists . November 2016 Election . Citing "circumstances in the region" (an apparent reference to the Islamic State challenge and conflicts in Syria and Yemen), the Amir suspended the National Assembly and set new elections for November 26, 2016—earlier than planned. Since 2011, Kuwait's government has increasingly imprisoned and revoked the citizenship of social media critics for "insulting the Amir," tarnishing Kuwait's reputation for political tolerance. That deadline was not met, although over the past few years, the government has been giving citizenship to small numbers of bidoons who were children of soldiers killed resisting the 1990 Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. The text is classified, but reportedly provides for mutual discussions in the event of a crisis; joint military exercises; U.S. evaluation of, advice to, and training of Kuwaiti forces; U.S. arms sales; prepositioning of U.S. military equipment; and U.S. access to a range of Kuwaiti facilities. Defense Secretary Mattis noted during his December 2017 visit to Kuwait that only Germany, Japan, and South Korea host more U.S. forces than Kuwait does. The U.S. force includes Army combat troops, not purely support forces, giving the United States the capability to project ground force power in the region. As discussed below, Kuwait hosts the headquarters for the U.S.-led operations against the Islamic State (Operation Inherent Resolve) and has made its military facilities available to coalition partners in that military campaign. The United States also has deployed four U.S.-owned Patriot systems in Kuwait since the 1991 Gulf War, but the United States announced on September 26, 2018, that it was redeploying that system, as well as U.S. Patriots in Bahrain and Jordan, to areas pertinent to U.S. strategic competition with Russia and China. Amir Sabah has been the key Gulf mediator of the intra-GCC rift that erupted in June 2017 when Saudi Arabia, UAE, and Bahrain—asserting that Qatar implements policies fundamentally at odds with other GCC states—broke relations with Qatar and denied it land, air, and sea access to their territories. Relations with Iraq

Kuwait has built political ties to the Shia-dominated government in Iraq in order to move beyond the legacy of the Saddam era invasion of Kuwait and to prevent any Iraqi Shia-led violence in Kuwait such as occurred in the 1980s. Disputes over the Iraq-Kuwait border, some of which apparently were a factor in Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait, have been mostly resolved. Like the other GCC states, and despite engaging Iranian leaders, Kuwaiti leaders support U.S. efforts to reduce Iran's efforts to expand its influence in the region, while supporting continued implementation of the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, JCPOA) to curb Iran's nuclear program. Kuwait recalled its Ambassador from Iran but it did not follow Saudi Arabia and Bahrain in breaking relations. It has hosted the operational headquarters for Operation Inherent Resolve (OIR). In part because of its willingness to engage diplomatically with Iran, the key backer of the Houthis, and its membership in the GCC, since 2016 Kuwait has hosted U.N.-mediated talks between the warring sides. Kuwaiti Policy on Other Regional Conflicts and Issues

Kuwait has generally acted in concert with—although not always as assertively as—other GCC states on regional issues that have stemmed from post-2011 unrest in the region. Kuwait also has ratified a Saudi-led GCC "Internal Security Pact" to enhance regional counterterrorism cooperation. Both were returned to Kuwait by January 2016. Countering Violent Extremism . Economic Issues

Political infighting and the drop in oil prices since 2014 have affected Kuwait's economy, but the country is taking steps to try to reduce its economic vulnerability. U.S. Assistance

Because Kuwait's per capita GDP is very high, Kuwait receives negligible amounts of U.S. foreign assistance.
Kuwait has been pivotal to the decades-long U.S. effort to secure the Persian Gulf region because of its consistent cooperation with U.S. military operations in the region and its key location in the northern Gulf. Kuwait and the United States have a formal Defense Cooperation Agreement (DCA), under which the United States maintains over 13,000 military personnel in country and prepositioned military equipment in Kuwait to project power in the region. Only Germany, Japan, and South Korea host more U.S. troops than does Kuwait, which hosts the operational command center for U.S.-led Operation Inherent Resolve (OIR) that has combatted the Islamic State.
Kuwait usually acts in concert not only with the United States but also with allies in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC: Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, and Oman). Kuwait is participating militarily in the Saudi-led coalition that is trying to defeat the Shia "Houthi" rebel movement in Yemen, but Kuwait tends to favor mediation of regional issues over the use of military force. Kuwait is trying to mediate a resolution of the intra-GCC rift that erupted in June 2017 when Saudi Arabia and the UAE moved to isolate Qatar. Kuwait has refrained from intervening in Syria's civil war, instead hosting donor conferences for victims of the Syrian civil conflict, Iraq's recovery from the Islamic State challenge, and the effects of regional conflict on Jordan's economy. Kuwait generally supports U.S. efforts to counter Iran and has periodically arrested Kuwaiti Shias that the government says are spying for Iran, but it also engages Iran at high levels. U.S. government reports have praised recent steps by Kuwait to counter the financing of terrorism, but reports persist that wealthy Kuwaitis are still able to donate to extreme Islamist factions in the region. Kuwait has consistently engaged the post-Saddam governments in Baghdad in part to prevent any repeat of the 1990 Iraqi invasion of Kuwait.
Experts have long assessed Kuwait's political system as a potential regional model for its successful incorporation of secular and Islamist political factions, both Shia and Sunni. However, this assessment has evolved since 2011 because Kuwait has followed other GCC states in incarcerating and revoking the citizenship of social media and other critics. Kuwait's political stability has not been in question but long-standing parliamentary opposition to the ruling Sabah family's political dominance has broadened in recent years to visible public pressure for political and economic reform. Parliamentary elections in July 2013 produced a National Assembly amenable to working with the ruling family, but the subsequent elections held in November 2016 returned to the body Islamist and liberal opponents of the Sabah family who held sway in earlier assemblies. Assembly oppositionist challenges to government policy led to a cabinet resignation in early November 2017, although the current cabinet does not differ much from the previous cabinet on key policy questions. Kuwait has increased its efforts to curb trafficking in persons over the past few years.
Years of political paralysis contributed to economic stagnation relative to Kuwait's more economically vibrant Gulf neighbors such as Qatar and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Like the other GCC states, Kuwait has struggled with reduced income from oil exports during 2014-2018. Kuwait receives negligible amounts of U.S. foreign assistance, and has offset some of the costs of U.S. operations in the region since Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait.