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SUMMARY:Quartermasters of Capital - Prof. Laleh Khalili (SOAS)
DTSTART:20161020T160000Z
DTEND:20161020T174500Z
UID:TALK68244@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Nina Rismal
DESCRIPTION:In this paper\, I will be examining two different facets of th
 e entanglements of war-making and capital accumulation in the making of th
 e transport infrastructures of the Arabian Peninsula. The first facet focu
 ses on the corporate structures engaged in commodity extraction and their 
 overlap with domains of sovereign authority\, including the exercise of co
 ercive power. I will argue that among the companies that were from very ea
 rly on involved in the making of maritime transport infrastructure\, have 
 been these extractive corporations (of oil and gas\, but also other minera
 ls) and among them there have been several distinct models of corporate ow
 nership prevalent in the Arabian Peninsula in the twentieth century.  The 
 two most prevalent models have been those represented by the companies tha
 t eventually became ARAMCO and BP (or the latter’s subsidiaries).  What 
 is noteworthy (and profoundly influential in the making of infrastructures
 ) is the extent to which these corporate models have\, despite their diffe
 rences\, been engaged in extraction of commodities following well-establis
 hed colonial models\, and have been given not only sovereign authorities b
 y the countries in which they are headquartered\, but have had significant
  operational and strategic overlaps with the militaries of those countries
  – specifically in the domain of transport and infrastructure constructi
 on.\n   \nThe second facet of the entanglements of war and trade has been 
 the centrality of the labour of workers whose enclosure/expropriation/expu
 lsion from their countries of origin\, because of war or shifts in global 
 patterns of trade\, has been crucial to the literal forging of these extra
 ctive/infrastructural industries.  Here\, war and geopolitics are not alwa
 ys the primary drivers for the provision of exploitable\, deportable\, pre
 carious labour\, but in certain periods are crucial factors (other decisiv
 e factors are global shifts in the patterns of capital accumulation and th
 e mosaic of politico-economic shifts sometimes labelled as “neoliberalis
 m”).  The mass movement of Palestinians to the Arabian Peninsula in the 
 aftermath of 1948 (and again 1967) was absolutely central to the building 
 of roads\, rail\, and ports in the region (as well as the construction of 
 offshore facilities). The geopolitics of Israel/Palestine conflict after 1
 948 was also a notable cause of labour unrest on the docks of the Arabian 
 Peninsula\, leading to planning by the British masters of shifts in the so
 urces for labour (from the Arab world to South Asia) in order to avoid suc
 h labour and political unrest.\n\nThese political shifts ultimately indica
 te that it is so very often not the logic of the market or the grand visio
 n of great men that shape the transformational landscapes of infrastructur
 es but war\, trade\, and mass movements of populations of migrants and ref
 ugees.\n\nBio: Laleh Khalili is a professor of Middle East politics at SOA
 S\, University of London and the author of Heroes and Martyrs of Palestine
 : The Politics of National Commemoration (Cambridge 2007) and Time in the 
 Shadows: Confinement in Counterinsurgencies (Stanford 2013).  She is curre
 ntly working on a project about logistics\, maritime transport infrastruct
 ures\, and ports of the Arabian Peninsula. \n
LOCATION:Keynes Hall\, 
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