Competition over raw materials, energy systems, critical minerals, and infrastructure is increasingly shaping geopolitical relations and global accumulation. In this context, control over extractive structures has become a key foundation of contemporary power. Extractive states are central to these dynamics, yet their political agency remains insufficiently understood. How can we explain the leverage of states whose power derives from their control over resources and strategic infrastructure? And how is this power being transformed by the energy transition and shifting resource dependencies?

Our author workshop, “The Extractive State: Resources, Leverage and Power,” brings together scholars from different fields to explore these questions and develop new perspectives on extractive states as sites of domination, dependency, resistance, and global leverage within contemporary capitalism.