Lecture on “Capital and Coercion in the Making of Arabian Transport Infrastructures”

I was invited to give a lecture on my current research at the wonderful Center for American Studies and Research at the American University of Beirut.  The abstract for the talk:

In this talk, I will be thinking through the overlapping role of the US and UK militaries and US and UK petroleum companies in the making of non-oil transport infrastructures of the Arabian Peninsula.  In so doing, I am hoping to excavate the ghostly presences of colonial and mercantilist structures so frequently present in metropolitan commercial cooptation of countries of the global South through tracing the role infrastructure construction plays in structuring global labour relations, the movement of capital, and the embroilment of powerful militaries in local politics.

The lecture can be seen here: