Locusts on the Arabian Oil Commodity Frontier: Space, Territory and Ecology in the Extractive Zone

ABSTRACT In 1943, British authorities launched a major operation in Arabia against the desert locust. Considered a threat to food security, teams of troops patrolled the desert to search for the insect and lay poison. Based on British archive documents, I argue that these patrols played a role in the territorialisation of the oil commodity frontier as they provided an opportunity to map and explore southwestern Arabia. British officials believed the patrols conditioned local inhabitants, who were often hostile, to the sight of Westerners and motorised transport. The exertion of modern technology was an act of dominance over “unexplored” space which projected imperial power and reordered social and ecological relations in a way that would assist the frontier movement. By examining this case, I explore the way in which this commodity frontier has a broader set of human and non‐human participants.