I want to thank members of my family who provided guidance and insight into the conditions in Kuwait during the Iraqi occupation and subsequent US invasion, which they lived through. They prefer not to be named. I am grateful to Dr. Salman Abu Sitta and Ibrahim Nasrallah for providing me with or pointing me to text-books and other materials I needed in my research where it came to specific historic audits, local topography, and political chronologies. Thank you to Dr. Richard Falk, Rachel Holmes, Adab Ibrahim, Eric Larsen, Linda Hanna, Ghada Dajani, and Raja Shehadeh for reading and offering encouragement on early drafts. Thank you to Dr. George Zahr for his consult on questions relating to organic and inorganic chemistry.

In addition to Norstedts and Diana Verlag, I want to thank all of my other international publishers, especially Aschehoug (Norway) and Feltrinelli (Italy), who have been so good to me over the years.