In this episode, we tackle a question that cuts to the heart of today’s global power struggles: Why is the Gulf so geopolitically important? To unpack this question, we are joined by Laleh Khalili, Professor of Gulf Studies at the University of Exeter. In conversation with host Polly Pallister-Wilkins she discusses the escalating tensions surrounding the US and Israeli war on Iran, the strategic implications of a potential closure of the Strait of Hormuz, and the wider risks of oil price shocks and global economic disruption. Moving beyond headline geopolitics, the conversation situates these developments within broader histories of empire, extraction, and capitalist accumulation. Laleh Khalili explains how the Gulf has been shaped by long-standing imperial entanglements and what this means for how we should understand its international relations and political economy today. Laleh Khalili’s work has been central to analysing the infrastructures and logics of contemporary capitalism and war. Amongst other works, she is the author of Sinews of War and Trade: Shipping and Capitalism in the Arabian Peninsula and Extractive Capitalism: How Commodities and Cronyism Drive the Global Economy.

Prof. Laleh Khalili

Khalili, L. (2018). The infrastructural power of the military: The geoeconomic role of the US Army Corps of Engineers in the Arabian Peninsula. European Journal of International Relations, 24(4), 911–933.

Khalili, L. (2025). Extractive capitalism: How commodities and cronyism drive the global economy. Profile Books.

Khalili, L. (2024). The corporeal life of seafaring. Mack Books.

Khalili, L. (2020). Sinews of war and trade: Shipping and capitalism in the Arabian Peninsula. Verso.