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What has been called "The Age of Empire" (Hobsbawm) is out of date. The specificities of colonial exploitation and domination of fundamentally premodern countries (not yet "states", let alone capitalized nation-states) by the foremost European powers have still quite some impact, but they don't correspond to the present stages of world wide capitalist accumulation. Is the term imperialism therefore out of date too? In this article it will be argued - together with authors like the late Harry Magdoff and James Petras for instance - that the term imperialism implies quite some advantages to the vague and aseptic term globalization. First, it is a critical term, which demonstrates the close linkage between the global capitalization, the formation of inequality and domination. Second, it is much more precise, as it shows the dynamic tendencies of capitalist expansion and its intensification at the same time. If one persuades oneself and the reader, that the term imperialism can fulfil an necessary analytical function, than one has to make sure that the meaning (or "aura") of it has to be modified quite considerably. In the main parts of this article, which proceeds in a historical manner, the arguments circle around a new qualification imperialism as "Introverted imperialism". The historical and systematic starting point is the closing of the world market as an internally directed market. (Prokla / FUB)

Literaturverz. S. 155 - 164

After critiquing theses of perennial capitalism advanced by Andre Gunder Frank (see SA 38:5/90X0021) & Immanuel Wallerstein (1974), the argument that imperialism is an expanded form of feudalism is used to critique the economic imperialism of the capital-based world market. The social roots of early colonialism can be found in the dynamics of feudal nobility, & colonies can be seen as feudal demesnes. The noble class has persisted in the West in the form of the governing class, & imperialism (eg, of the Third World, the environment) has persisted in the form of global economics. Notions of citizen, bourgeoisie, class struggle, & revolution are discussed within the feudalist theoretical framework. 27 References. Adapted from the source document.

In March 2002 President Bush announced the creation of the Millennium Challenge Account (MCA). Under the MCA, only countries that govern justly, invest in their people, & open their economies to foreign enterprise & entrepreneurship will qualify for funding. To this end the Bush administration has devised sixteen eligibility criteria -- ranging from civil liberties to 'days to start a business' -- that each country must successfully pass prior to receiving aid. Despite its impact on normalising, & thus legitimating, the tendency toward the privatisation of aid & militarisation of development, there has been very little critical work on the MCA. This article attempts to understand historically the MCA as a moment of American empire. It is argued that while the form of the MCA represents an unabashed articulation of US-led imperialism vis-a-vis the poorest regions in the South, the content of this allegedly novel strategy reflects the same goals & interests that underlie the neoliberal agenda. 64 References. Adapted from the source document.

The article revisits classical theory of imperialism, stressing the commonalities in seeing imperialism as an outgrowth of the basic dynamics and restructuring of capitalism, as well as the controversy over the conceptualisation of this dynamic. During World War I, the Bolshevik theorists, Bukharin and Lenin, took up the theme and gave it important twists that had grave consequences, both for later Comintern policy and for Soviet planning practice. In comparison to the classical theories, conceptualisations of globalisation address a similar, though also markedly changed situation in much more complex ways. The article discusses mainly the issues of the state and US hegemony, in connection with claims for a resuscitation of Kautsky's concept of ultra-imperialism and the different forms of wars that haunt the present, in contradistinction to the early 20th century. (Prokla / FUB)

Lit.