In wartime, the Gulf’s deepest reserves are legal as well as financial

In February 1953, eight years before independence, Kuwait set up an investment board in London to place its surplus oil revenue abroad. It was the world’s first sovereign wealth fund. Few people outside the Gulf noticed. Thirty-seven years later, the idea behind it was tested in the hardest way possible.

When Iraq invaded in August 1990, Kuwait lost its territory in a day. It did not lose its wealth. Within hours, Washington and London froze Kuwaiti state assets, not to punish Kuwait but to keep them out of the invader’s reach. The investments built up over four decades sustained the government in exile and helped pay for liberation and reconstruction.