Ali Kadri, "De-development and the Accumulation of Waste Through Wars" - DevDays2025 Keynote Lecture

"De-development and the Accumulation of Waste Through Wars", a keynote lecture delivered by Professor Ali Kadri at the Development Days 2025 Conference on the theme "Development Transitions: Amidst Waste, Wars, and Maldevelopment" held at the Small Festival Hall, Main Building, University of Helsinki, 27 February 2025. **** Abstract: In neoclassical analysis, war is treated as a side event to economic processes. In econometric analysis, data indicating war-years are written off or smoothed to maintain the steady state of the time series. It is as if nothing happens to impact the economy over the longer term. In short, war is treated as a fleeting nuisance, a sort of tax that distorts capital accumulation. War, however, is the ultimate form of waste. Waste is commodified. It is objectified labour and it sells for profit like any other commodity. It is therefore of value and submits to the dynamics of the law of value. Waste, especially war, is the sort of commodity that creates its own demand. People must pay for waste and war. They are choiceless, and as such, a demand-led crisis for waste products is unlikely to ever arise. What is more, as the crisis of capital deepens, capital resorts more and more to the production of waste, of which war becomes a production sphere on its own and, a leading stage that underpins the whole process of capital accumulation. In my ongoing work, I argue that war was crucial to the formation of capitalism and it continues to support the profitability of capital to this day. **** Keynote Speaker: Ali Kadri, Visiting Professor, Sun Yat-sen University, PRC **** Commentator: Tiina Seppälä, University Lecturer in Global Development Studies, University of Helsinki **** Chair: Karim Maïche, University Lecturer, University of Lapland