Language: English.
Venue: KW Institute for Contemporary Art, 4th floor.

Free admission. Registration online.

The Middle East once again stands at the centre of global war and a widening economic crisis. This lecture places the current moment in the longer history of fossil capitalism and the rise of American power from the mid-twentieth century onward. It examines especially the rise of the Gulf states and their crucial place in sharpening geopolitical rivalries as well as the relative decline of US hegemony. It concludes by reflecting on what these developments might mean for global progressive movements in an age of war and climate breakdown.

Adam Hanieh is a professor in the Department of Development Studies and director of the Middle East Institute at SOAS, University of London. He is the author of several books on issues of political economy and the Middle East, including Crude Capitalism: Oil, Corporate Power, and the Making of the World Market (Verso Books 2024), which was co-winner of the 2025 Best Book by an International Scholar, Global and Transnational Section of the American Sociological Association.