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With the conditions of 20th C industrialization often hard to replicate, it’s worth examining alternative developmental pathways (despite all their flaws). And a call for sociologists of finance to take seriously the bigger questions of development!

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I show that the construction of an international financial center with a robust banking sector was neither a laissez-faire experiment nor imperial economic domination by other means, but rather a deliberate project of the postcolonial developmental state.

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I identify three processes to explain this divergence: (1) the state’s ability to discipline merchant-capitalists; (2) the institutional legacies of colonialism and postcolonial maneuvering; and (3) the incorporation of transnational experts into ruling coalitions.

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The article examines how city-states turn to creating global financial centres as part of their developmental strategies. Using the cases of Singapore and Kuwait, I explain why Singapore was far more successful in doing so.

Banking on the Ruins of Empire: Developing Global Finance in Kuwait and Singapore | Social Science History | Cambridge Core

Pleased to share my latest article, “Banking on the Ruins of Empire: Developing Global Finance in Kuwait and Singapore,” published at Social Science History. www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

cambridge.org

Banking on the Ruins of Empire: Developing Global Finance in Kuwait and Singapore

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Rohan Advani @rohanadvani.bsky.social · 10/07/2025

Do you have stats on US green investment and how they compare by any chance?

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Reposted by Rohan Advani

Benjamin Braun @benbraun.social · 10/07/2025

It makes sense to expect a new age of inducements for institutional capital pools to hold sovereign debt (aka financial repression), as @martinsandbu.ft.com argued last week. Alas, it appears state managers are too macrofinancially incompetent to pull that off and instead are self-sabotaging bigly.

Dutch pension funds set to sell €125bn of government bonds
Overhaul of Eurozone’s largest retirement sector is expected to put pressure on continent’s debt markets

Pension funds 💔 gilts
For whom the bell tolls

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Rohan Advani @rohanadvani.bsky.social · 06/07/2025

But you’re doing what the brexiteers are doing—fighting an image of Singapore that isn’t particularly accurate.

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Reposted by Rohan Advani

Gabriel Zucman @gabrielzucman.bsky.social · 23/05/2025

A long long time ago, in a far away galaxy... the US used to tax the rich

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Hettie O’Brien @hettieobrien.bsky.social · 13/05/2025

I’ve been piecing together this Guardian long read for over a year - about a thoroughly plausible, utterly crooked lawyer who pretended to be the perfect gentleman while he spun a web of deceit. Thanks to @davidedgarwolf.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

theguardian.com

An English gentleman, a crooked lawyer: the secrets of Stephen David Jones

The long read: With his brilliant mind and impeccable credentials, it’s little wonder that wealthy clients trusted him with their fortunes. Then they started to get suspicious

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Reposted by Rohan Advani

Mike McCarthy @itsmccarthy.bsky.social · 09/05/2025

Fred Block reviewed The Master's Tools for @dissentmag.bsky.social. He contrasts my book, which identifies radical forms of economic democracy as the solution to our political crisis, with another, which argues such democracy is an impossibility. In typical form, he has interesting things to say!

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Middle Eastern countries will need to focus more intensively on creating jobs in domestic services and pull people out of the informal sector. And they will also have to look to each other for help! But doing so will not be easy, and renewed disorder could torpedo progress.

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Whatever the cause, the dream is over. But the fiasco could actually represent an opportunity to accelerate a pivot that is already underway. In the short-term, tariffs will be painful. But the region cannot expect to export its way to development (see Rodrik).

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So why did the region not experience sustained growth? There's a lot of blame to go around: cronyism, enclave capitalism, the absence of a neighboring trade bloc, high wages, and of course, war and political instability.

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However, as we know, even the neoliberal dream was never materialized in any meaningful way. In fact, the Middle East as a whole was actually *relatively* shielded from neoliberal pressures, compared to other parts of the world.

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Order from Ashes @orderfromashes.bsky.social · 06/05/2025

Beginning in the 1990s, the US pushed for free trade agreements with Middle Eastern states. It was economic vision that dovetailed with U.S. strategic interests in the region and fit with post-Cold War liberal sensibilities.

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Reposted by Rohan Advani

Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs mean that the 1990s dream of peace and democracy in the Middle East through economic liberalization is dead, writes @rohanadvani.bsky.social in a new commentary. (1/6)

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Rohan Advani @rohanadvani.bsky.social · 12/04/2025

and shoutout to @colmpm.bsky.social for the trade-offs associated with meeting increased capital expenditure (sorry no hyperlinks were included!)

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Rohan Advani @rohanadvani.bsky.social · 10/04/2025

The UK's NWF is positive for progressive management of the economy. But in the long-run, the Left will have to repurpose it to expand its balance sheet, include trade unions, and build up its own financial expertise. My latest for Tribune tribunemag.co.uk/2025/04/diri...

tribunemag.co.uk

Dirigisme Just to Feel Something

Rachel Reeves threatened us with a good time by creating the notionally statist, pro-green National Wealth Fund. But its lack of funding, reliance on private capital and exclusion of the unions will s...

Rohan Advani @rohanadvani.bsky.social · 06/04/2025

I don’t think we’re doing too well :/

Rohan Advani @rohanadvani.bsky.social · 26/03/2025

PE firms trying to come for retirement funds: "higher interest rates and declining asset values have led to fewer initial public offerings and sales. Investors aren’t getting their money back, choking off the cycle of reinvestment." www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

bloomberg.com

Private Equity Is Coming for America’s $12 Trillion in Retirement Savings

Inside the push to change how every American’s nest egg is invested and make private assets mainstream.

Rohan Advani @rohanadvani.bsky.social · 25/03/2025

Investments are going to be pouring in, but Gulf states should make sure that they're not locked into costly obligations and that their diplomatic and de-escalatory initiatives are not compromised. My latest for @centuryintl.bsky.social tcf.org/content/comm...

tcf.org

Will Gulf Countries Think Trump's Glitter Is Gold?

Donald Trump has quickly made it clear that the guiding light in his relationships with Arab countries of the Gulf will be his trademark transactionalism.

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Aron Lund @aronlund.bsky.social · 25/03/2025

Smart piece on USA-Gulf relations under Trump, highlighting their deeply mismatched expectations and suggesting Gulf states are likely best off hedging against overexposure to America’s chaotic politics by tilting eastward. @rohanadvani.bsky.social @centuryintl.bsky.social tcf.org/content/comm...

tcf.org

Will Gulf Countries Think Trump's Glitter Is Gold?

Donald Trump has quickly made it clear that the guiding light in his relationships with Arab countries of the Gulf will be his trademark transactionalism.

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Rohan Advani @rohanadvani.bsky.social · 20/03/2025

very helpful formulation! I'm writing something and will use this and link to it. hope that's okay with you (sorry would have DMd you otherwise)

Aron Lund @aronlund.bsky.social · 31/01/2025

Reposted by Rohan Advani

"Syria's new Islamist leaders are undertaking a radical overhaul of the country's broken economy, including plans to fire a third of all public sector workers and privatising state-run companies" @riham-alkousaa.bsky.social @reuters.com www.reuters.com/world/middle...

reuters.com

Syria's new Islamist rulers to roll back state with privatizations, public sector layoffs

The pace of the declared crackdown on waste and corruption has triggered protests from government workers amid fears of a sectarian jobs purge.

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Rohan Advani @rohanadvani.bsky.social · 27/12/2024

It will be interesting to see whether the same mechanisms for enacting policy can be used to reverse it…

Rohan Advani @rohanadvani.bsky.social · 09/12/2024

“We didn’t want to have to fight for 13 years, we shouldn’t have had to. We wanted change, not to have to bring down a regime,” @willchristou.bsky.social from Damascus www.theguardian.com/world/2024/d...

theguardian.com

‘Our father did not die for nothing’: on the ground in Damascus, disbelief turns to jubilation

In Syria’s capital, residents are in a daze as they try to absorb Assad’s dramatic downfall

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Rohan Advani @rohanadvani.bsky.social · 08/12/2024

I was right in front of the Bissouma one. Just unforgivable

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Scott Williamson @scottrw630.bsky.social · 27/11/2024

My book is out! I’m grateful for the many people in Jordan, Tunisia, Stanford, and elsewhere who helped it reach this point. If you’re interested in why some autocrats stay popular or why ruling monarchs are so durable in today’s world, this book is for you! www.cambridge.org/core/books/k...

cambridge.org

The King Can Do No Wrong

Cambridge Core - Middle East Government,Politics and Policy - The King Can Do No Wrong

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Rohan Advani @rohanadvani.bsky.social · 02/12/2024

What if it’s just AI nasheeds but the algorithm is mostly based off Gregorian chants

Rohan Advani @rohanadvani.bsky.social · 02/12/2024

“The insurgents vowed to push all the way into Damascus, but life in the Syrian capital remained normal…In southeastern Aleppo, however, the main road out of the city was gridlocked as people fled the fighting, and gas stations were short on fuel.” apnews.com/article/syri... @chehayebk.bsky.social

apnews.com

Syria launches counterattacks in an attempt to halt insurgency, as Iran's top diplomat meets Assad

The Syrian military rushed reinforcements to the northwest and launched airstrikes Sunday in an attempt to push back insurgents who seized the country’s largest city of Aleppo.

Rohan Advani @rohanadvani.bsky.social · 01/12/2024

commentators were questioning if it was a red?!