Extractive Capitalism:How Commodities and Cronyism Drive the Global Economy

An eye-opening survey of how extractive industries power globalizationand how to fight back, by one of the world’s leading experts on the oil industry and Middle Eastern politics

A succinct survey of how oil is pumped, refined, traded and used, as well as a witty and always engaging look at the shady worlds of corporate cronyism, management consultancy and the legal grey zones of offshore tax havens and shell companies. Understand why the world is still run by oil, and how the balance of global power is shifting—and will continue to shift as the climate crisis ramps up, as the US and China rattle sabres in a new Cold War era, and as pirates and proxies once again begin to target shipping in the Red Sea in the wake of the Israel-Hamas conflict. Fascinating, entertaining, and a must-have for anyone interested in international relations and the global marketplace.

Whether it’s pumping oil, mining resources or shipping commodities across oceans, the global economy runs on extraction. Promises of frictionless trade and lucrative speculation are the hallmarks of our era, but the backbone of globalization is still low-cost labor and rapacious corporate control. Extractive capitalism is what made—and is still making—our unequal world. Laleh Khalili reflects on the hidden stories behind late capitalism, from seafarers abandoned on debt-ridden container ships to the nefarious reach of consultancy firms and the cronyism that drives record-breaking profits. Extractive Capitalism reveals the dark truths behind the world’s most crucial industries.

Praise for Sinews of War and Trade

"Laleh Khalili's fascinating new book opens the window on another world, hidden in plain sight, a shadow world of ports and container ships that holds a key to the often violent workings of contemporary capitalism. To read Sinews of War and Trade is to understand the truth of Derek Walcott's observation that "the sea is history.""
Adam Shatz, author of The Rebel’s Clinic: the Revolutionary Lives of Frantz Fanon

"In this long awaited book Laleh Khalili makes brilliant contributions to every subject she touches: maritime history, labor history, military history, and the history of global capitalism. Readers will delight in the book's originality -- there is truly nothing else like it."
Marcus Rediker, author of The Slave Ship: A Human History