Laleh Khalili is a professor of Gulf studies at University of Exeter and the author of several books, including Sinews of War and Trade: Shipping and Capitalism in the Arabian Peninsula.
The pandemic caused unprecedented disruption to the global shipping of oil, but the industry survived with the help of massive state intervention. Control over the oil trade is a vital tool of economic power that the US is determined to retain.
Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia has a dream: a futuristic desert city stretching to the clouds. But down in the sand, it’s a cyberpunk dystopia.
The Suez Canal blockage inspired a thousand memes, but its consequences for the world economy were deadly serious. The canal has always performed a vital function for capitalist trade, and there’s no reason to think its economic and geopolitical importance is going to decline.