How shipping is central to the very fabric of global capitalism
On the map of global
trade, China is now the factory of the world. A parade of ships full
of raw commodities—iron ore, coal, oil—arrive in its ports, and
fleets of container ships leave with manufactured goods in all
directions. The oil that fuels China’s manufacturing comes
primarily from the Arabian peninsula. Much of the material shipped
from China are transported through the ports of Arabian peninsula,
Dubai’s Jabal Ali port foremost among them. China’s “maritime
silk road” flanks the peninsula on all sides.
Sinews of War and
Trade is the story of what the making of new ports and shipping
infrastructure has meant not only for the Arabian peninsula itself,
but for the region and the world beyond. The book is an account of
how maritime transportation is not simply an enabling companion of
trade, but central to the very fabric of global capitalism. The ports
that serve maritime trade, logistics, and hydrocarbon transport
create racialised hierarchies of labour, engineer the lived
environment, aid the accumulation of capital regionally and globally,
and carry forward colonial regimes of profit, law and administration.