A Killing Machine: Exploitation, Extraction, and the Modern/Colonial State

The Western liberal democratic state is often held as a benchmark of social and political development. In the context of domestic politics, it is assumed to be a public good, hamstringed by the law, that serves its citizens equally. However, this often ignores violent, extractive, and exploitive practices embedded in this state model. This chapter thinks through the emergence of modern statehood – as a global connected phenomenon, including in the Arab-majority region – as directly tied to colonial histories where the state is dependent on the reproduction of exploitation, extraction, and death. Doing this, I invite a decolonizing reconfiguration of how the contemporary Arab state – and the lived realities shaped by contemporary Arab states – are thought of, analysed, and resisted.