This is a book about oil and politics. It analyzes the impact of external revenues on the formation and destruction of domestic political coalitions (the transformation of the regime) and state institutions (the transformation of the state). The book analyzes both the impact of external revenue sources on ruling coalitions and state institutions, and the important variations that occur within the broad constraints set by oil: general outcomes, but also differences in those outcomes.

Kuwait and Qatar are the vehicles for exploring the transformations that oil sets in motion. Each state individually is a longitudinal study, a comparison of politics before and after oil. Together they form a paired comparison over space.

The study is based originally on a year's fieldwork in the Gulf, and on several subsequent trips to the region, as well as on research in London's India and Foreign Office records. Because of the paucity of published material on the two states, particularly Qatar, the book relies heavily on primary sources, archives and interviews. The book presents an argument, but because of the limited secondary material available on these countries, it also embeds that argument in detailed comparative historical case studies, weaving the argument through the text. While practical necessity required this treatment, it is also hoped that the attention to historical detail and contextual richness provides the reader with a more textured, more nuanced understanding of the processes analyzed.