Update: Elliott Schools spokesman Menachem Wecker says the money will be used to support teaching, faculty and student research, conferences, and visiting scholars.

The Institute for Middle East Studies in the Elliott School received a $1 million gift from the government of Kuwait, the University announced yesterday.

It is not known if the Institute has decided how the donation will be spent.

This is not the first gift Kuwait has given GW. In 2006, the Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences gave $3.4 million to establish the Kuwait professorship now held by Edward Gnehm, the former U.S. ambassador to Kuwait.

In September, Kuwait Prime Minister Sheikh Nasser Mohammad Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah was awarded the President’s Medal by University President Steven Knapp in a ceremony at the Elliott School.

Knapp thanked Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, the Emir of Kuwait, for his support of GW and the Institute.

“His Highness’s generosity will help us continue to build one of this nation’s premier centers for the study of this important region,” Knapp said in a news release.