Kuwait: Lobbying and Influence in the United States

Kuwait hosts major American bases and has been a Major Non-NATO Ally since 2004, according to the State Department’s U.S. Relations With Kuwait fact sheet. Its current lobbying operation is small. Its historical importance to public relations is much larger because of the campaign that preceded the 1991 Gulf War.

A defense hub with a modest lobbying operation

Kuwait sits at the top of the Persian Gulf. U.S. forces use Camp Arifjan, Ali Al Salem Air Base, and Camp Buehring for regional work, per Congressional Research Service RS21513. That makes Kuwait a key CENTCOM hub.

That military role gives Kuwait a continuing interest in Washington policy. FARA filings identify who represents Kuwaiti clients, who pays them, and which services they provide.

Current representation under FARA

The Foreign Agents Registration Act makes firms disclose when they work for a foreign government or party. Public filings live on the Justice Department’s FARA eFile portal. OpenSecrets also tracks these filings in a searchable FARA database.

Kuwait’s recent FARA record is small compared to neighbors like Qatar, Saudi Arabia, or the UAE. Public filings have listed firms such as MSLGROUP and Hogan Lovells doing work tied to Kuwaiti clients. The work tends to cover media relations, legal advice, and help with U.S. government contacts.

Because firms file supplemental statements twice a year and contracts change, the FARA portal is the proper source for a current list.

The 1990 campaign and the Nayirah testimony

Kuwait’s best-known influence effort happened after Iraq invaded in August 1990. A group called Citizens for a Free Kuwait hired Hill & Knowlton to build U.S. public support for military action. The New York Times editorial from January 15, 1992 laid out the case.

The group was funded almost entirely by the Kuwaiti government, per reporting in Toxic Sludge Is Good for You by the Center for Media and Democracy. Hill & Knowlton registered under FARA for this work.

The campaign is most famous for a 1990 congressional hearing. A 15-year-old girl identified only as “Nayirah” told lawmakers she had seen Iraqi soldiers take babies from incubators in a Kuwait City hospital. The story spread fast and helped shape the vote to authorize force.

Later reporting showed Nayirah was the daughter of Kuwait’s ambassador to the United States, Saud Al-Sabah. Human Rights Watch and John R. MacArthur’s book Second Front questioned whether the incubator story happened as told. The Nayirah testimony entry on Wikipedia collects the main sources. The episode is now a standard case study in PR ethics and media literacy courses.

Present-day scale

Kuwait’s current lobbying spend is far below that of larger Gulf states. OpenSecrets tracking shows single-digit firms filing for Kuwaiti clients in most recent years, with total spending well under that of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, or the UAE.

Beyond direct lobbying, Kuwait has long ties to U.S. banks and law firms through the Kuwait Investment Authority and Kuwait Petroleum Corporation. Not all of that advisory work falls under FARA, since FARA covers political and public-relations work, not routine business advice, per the DOJ FARA FAQ.

Exact annual totals should be taken from the current OpenSecrets records and checked against the FARA portal.

History is not a substitute for current evidence

The 1990 campaign belongs in any history of foreign public relations, but it does not prove how Kuwait operates today. Current filings show a much smaller operation focused on media relations, legal advice, and government contact. Claims about present influence should rest on those records and on-the-record reporting rather than a reputation formed 35 years ago.