The Technopolitics of Swedish Iron Mining in Cold War Liberia, 1950–1990

Abstract

Earlier research on Cold War resource politics has not focused significantly on the interests of smaller, non-colonial industrialized states. This paper examines the iron mining company LAMCO in Liberia, dominated strategically and operationally by Swedish actors and interests, between the mid-1950s and the late 1980s. It argues that the creation of LAMCO must be understood in the context of the early Cold War and its international politics, and that the enterprise's subsequent development was characterized by a specific technopolitical dynamic resulting from the encounter between the Liberian government's development strategy and the Swedish investors' need to mitigate political risks both in Liberia and at home. The findings help clarify the conditions under which actors from an ostensibly non-aligned and non-colonial country could gain access to minerals in Africa. They also contribute to our understanding of iron mining in Liberian political history, showing how LAMCO developed in close association with particular developmental policies in Liberia that sought to promote national development while simultaneously increasing the power of the Liberian presidency. Though it initially served this purpose successfully, its operations also generated a string of unexpected outcomes that eventually made the company a serious problem for the Liberian government. ; QC 20190902