The New Lords of Capital: Betrayal as a Tool of Extraction in Sudan, Tigray, and Gaza

Introduction: The Global Logic of r > g

Thomas Piketty’s seminal work, Capital in the Twenty-First Century, provides a powerful structural lens for interpreting the seemingly intractable conflicts of our time. His central thesis—that the rate of return on capital (r) tends to exceed the rate of economic growth (g)—explains not only the concentration of wealth within nations but also a brutal geopolitical corollary. On a global scale, this dynamic manifests as the relentless pursuit of resource and strategic returns by powerful state and non-state actors, systematically overwhelming the development and sovereignty of vulnerable populations. The crises in Sudan, Tigray, and Gaza are not isolated tragedies of ethnic strife or ancient hatreds; they are contemporary case studies in a world where capital accumulation is enforced through violence and political co-optation, creating a devastating convergence of interest between global powers and local betrayers.

Sudan: The Pure Calculus of Resource Extraction

The war in Sudan presents a stark illustration of capital accumulation through outright dispossession. The conflict between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces is a violent competition over the right to extract and export the nation’s wealth, particularly its gold and agricultural potential. External powers, including the United Arab Emirates and networks linked to Russian capital, are not mere bystanders but active investors in this conflict, providing support to factions that can guarantee their future returns. In Pikettyan terms, the war represents a brutal mechanism to ensure that the ‘r’ from Sudan’s natural capital flows into global circuits of power, while the ‘g’—the growth, stability, and very survival of the Sudanese people—is sacrificed as an acceptable cost of doing business. The human suffering is not a byproduct but a precondition for this form of extractive economics.

Tigray: From Military Conquest to the Betrayal of Social Capital

The war in Tigray escalated this logic by adding a critical, insidious layer: the deliberate destruction of social capital. Tigray’s fertile lands, known for producing valuable “white gold” sesame, and its mineral wealth made it a target for a campaign of military conquest and occupation. However, the region’s legendary social cohesion, forged over centuries as a defense against invaders, remained a potent barrier to permanent subjugation. The post-war period has thus seen the deployment of a more sophisticated tactic: the co-optation of elite insiders to dismantle unity from within. The transformation of figures like Getachew Reda, from a leader of Tigray’s interim administration to a senior advisor to Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, and the alignment of revered General Tsadkan with the central government, represent a strategic betrayal of profound consequence. Their roles have shifted from defending the collective ‘g’ of their people to legitimizing a political order that facilitates the extraction of ‘r’ by those in power. This fragmentation of Tigrayan unity is the final stage in securing its resources, proving that the most effective conquest is one that persuades the conquered to dismantle their own defenses.

Gaza: The Architecture of Immobility and Exclusion

The ongoing catastrophe in Gaza exemplifies a prolonged, institutionalized application of the r > g dynamic. Here, the logic is one of enforced inequality, where capital mobility for the powerful coexists with absolute immobility for the occupied. The blockade and repeated military assaults have created an economy of deprivation, where access to fundamental resources—water, energy, building materials—is systematically controlled. The narratives of security obscure a deeper political economy designed to deny Palestinian ‘g’—sovereignty, economic development, and self-determination—while ensuring the ‘r’ of territorial control, geopolitical dominance, and security contracts flows to the occupying power and its international partners. Gaza stands as a harrowing testament to how ideologies can be marshaled to justify a system where capital and rights are distributed along violently enforced hierarchies.

Conclusion: The Imperative for a New Political Economy

The interconnected suffering in Sudan, Tigray, and Gaza reveals a grim truth of the twenty-first-century global order: the concentration of capital is increasingly enforced through proxy wars and the systematic co-optation of local leadership. The betrayal witnessed in Tigray is not a unique moral failing but a predictable function of a system that rewards elites for aligning with extractive power over the interests of their own people. To counter this, Piketty’s call for transparency and global cooperation must be extended to the realm of conflict and resource governance. This demands international mechanisms that hold state and corporate actors accountable for fueling war economies, and a renewed commitment to supporting local institutions that defend collective social capital over private, predatory gain. Until the global community confronts the fact that modern conflict is a primary engine of inequality, the tragedies of these regions will remain not as exceptions, but as the logical outcome of a world where the return on power continues to eclipse the value of peace.