Destroy and Profit: Wars, Disasters and Corporations

Periods following wars, conflicts and disasters have long been opportunities for channeling massive amounts of public and private money, and human and technical resources towards programmes that are aimed ostensibly towards rehabilitation and reconstruction in affected countries and regions.  They have also been opportunities for national and foreign governments, and multilateral agencies to establish new rules and policies for the provision of goods and services, infrastructure development and investment, and to reshape the geographical, economic and political contours of societies struggling with the aftermath of wars and disasters.  But to what extent do these programmes benefit local and national populations most deeply affected by wars and disasters?  Who really benefit from the massive infusions of aid and technical assistance that characterize rehabilitation and reconstruction programmes?

“Destroy and Profit: Wars, Disasters and Corporations,” a new publication by Focus on the Global South attempts to address some of the key issues and challenges that accompany post war and post disaster reconstruction programmes.  The collection of articles in this publication range from analyzing the economic and political restructuring of occupied Iraq, the links between war and disaster profiteering in Hurricane Katrina, the Asian Tsunami, Iraq, Afghanistan and Haiti, and investment agreements in Central Asia, and show some of the common elements among post war and disaster reconstruction programmes.

CONTENTS:

INTRODUCTION
By Walden Bello

“SHOCK AND AWE” THERAPY: HOW THE UNITED STATES IS ATTEMPTING TO CONTROL IRAQ¹S OIL AND PRY OPEN ITS ECONOMY
By Herbert Docena

IRAQ’S NEOLIBERAL CONSTITUTION
By Herbert Docena

ACCESSION THROUGH THE BACKDOOR: HOW THE US IS PUSHING IRAQ INTO THE WTO By Mary Lou Malig

TURBO-CHARGING INVESTOR SOVEREIGNTY:
INVESTOR AGREEMENTS AND CORPORATE
COLONIALISM
By Nick Hildyard and Greg Muttitt

FROM 9/11 TO HURRICANE KATRINA:
WAR, THE 21ST CENTURY AND AMERICA¹S FUTURE By Tom Reifer

RECONSTRUCTION’S TRIPLE WHAMMY:
WOLFOWITZ, THE WHITE HOUSE AND THE WORLD BANK By Shalmali Guttal

JUSTICE TO TSUNAMI VICTIMS
By Sarath Fernando

ON REBUILDING PEASANTS¹ AND FISHERFOLK¹S LIVELIHOODS AFTER THE EARTHQUAKE AND TSUNAMI CATASTROPHES

A PEOPLE¹S PROCESS FOR POST-TSUNAMI REBUILDING

About the Contributors