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Imperialism, the highest stage of capitalism
... /1974c) 1 aponta que "a substituição da livre concorrência pelo monopólio é o traço econômico fundamental, a essência do imperialismo". Tal perspectiva situa o conceito a partir de seu nexo histórico, como fica claro quando /1974d indica que o imperialismo é fruto do "desenvolvimento e continuação direta das características do capitalismo em geral". Para Lênin, ao mesmo tempo, "o programa da social-democracia, como contraponto à utopia oportunista e pequeno-burguesa, deve postular a divisão das nações entre opressoras e oprimidas como básico, expressivo e inevitável sob o imperialismo" . ...
... Isto porque a publicação de tal obra se dava em meio ao contexto de cisão do movimento socialista 3 em função de posições chauvinistas dentro da Segunda Internacional. E para Lênin (1917/1974d, "a cisão no movimento operário está ligada às condições objetivas do imperialismo". ...
... Tal fundamento é o capital monopolista que, ao assumir a forma da finança, constitui uma "oligarquia financeira" que busca saquear todo o mundo. Conforme /1974d, "a exportação de capital, uma das mais essenciais bases econômicas do imperialismo, isola ainda mais completamente os rentistas da produção e define o selo do parasitismo em todo país que vive da exploração do trabalho de diversos países e colônias estrangeiros". ...
O presente artigo tem como objetivo demonstrar a centralidade do conceito de autodeterminação das nações na teoria do imperialismo de Lênin. Para isso, utilizaremos textos do autor sobre a questão, contrapondo suas teses àquelas defendidas por Rosa Luxemburgo. A teoria do imperialismo de Lênin se tornou popular principalmente por meio do ensaio Imperialismo, estágio superior do capitalismo, no qual são tratados principalmente os aspectos econômicos do imperialismo. Retomar os debates travados em torno da autodeterminação das nações é fundamental para polemizar com leituras marcadas pelo economicismo que, a despeito de se considerarem subsidiárias de Lênin, acabam por desconsiderar os aspectos políticos de sua teoria, inclusive a importância da luta dos povos periféricos pelo direito à autodeterminação.
... The formation of international monopolist capital associations which share the world among themselves, and e. The territorial division of the whole world among the biggest capitalist powers is completed (Lenin, 1978). ...
... After that, there will be a great struggle among the capitalists in order to establish monopoly in international field and themselves. The process ultimately leads to World War (Lenin 1978). ...
... Imperialism or the domination of finance capital is the highest stage of capitalism in which this separation researches vast proportions. The supremacy of finance capital over all other forms of capital means the predominance of the rentier and of the financial oligarchy; it means that a small number of financially powerful states stand out among all their rest (Lenin, 1978). ...
... It's not that political-economic interpretations of international politics have been absent. Theories such as Gramscian hegemony formation, imperialist perspectives like those of J.A. Hobson or V. Lenin, and other international political-economic discussions have been diverse and ongoing(Hobson 2011;Lenin 1963Lenin [1916).These discussions highlight that the strategic competition and security evolution between the U.S. andChina align with the crisis of the U.S.-centric international economic system based on American liberalism established since World War II. From the mid-20th century to the post-Cold War era, the balance was maintained through asymmetric forces like nuclear weapons, while the international order persisted under the military confrontations of the U.S. unipolar system. ...
... It's not that political-economic interpretations of international politics have been absent. Theories such as Gramscian hegemony formation, imperialist perspectives like those of J.A. Hobson or V. Lenin, and other international political-economic discussions have been diverse and ongoing(Hobson 2011;Lenin 1963Lenin [1916).These discussions highlight that the strategic competition and security evolution between the U.S. andChina align with the crisis of the U.S.-centric international economic system based on American liberalism established since World War II. From the mid-20th century to the post-Cold War era, the balance was maintained through asymmetric forces like nuclear weapons, while the international order persisted under the military confrontations of the U.S. unipolar system. ...
... Far from explaining structural underdevelopment, this hypothesis implies . . . the impossibility of underdevelopment; it is incapable of showing why countries with high wages undergo industrialization while underdeveloped nations possess relatively little industry. ( Mandel 1976, 352) In addition to the above, the theoretical position for the international equalization of the rates of profit and the formation of uniform prices of production on a worldwide scale ignores "the unevenness . . . in world economy" ( Lenin [1916] 2010, 118). Mandel writes in this regard: ...
In this article, the “mechanism” of unequal exchange, on the basis of Marx’s analysis and Emmanuel’s seminal contribution to the issue, is investigated. According to the analysis, the deeper cause of unequal exchange lies in the established differences in the labor skills between more and less advanced countries. The analysis reveals that behind the Ricardian “comparative advantage,” unequal exchange is hidden at the expense of the less advanced countries of lower wages. On the basis of the theoretical framework of the study, an empirical investigation of unequal exchange within the 27 countries of the European Union (EU27) is developed. According to the findings of this study, there is an economic pyramid of value extraction (unequal exchange) within the EU27. At the top of this, there are countries that extract value from other EU27 countries in the context of intra-EU27 trade and at the same time exhibit monetary surpluses in their trade balance. At the bottom of the economic pyramid, there are countries that experience value extraction from other EU27 countries in the context of intra-EU27 trade while they may run monetary surpluses or deficits in their trade balance.
... The analysis above has certain parallels to the debate about imperialism before World War I (see Hobson 1902;Hilferding 1981Hilferding [1910; Lenin 1917). Lenin (1917: ch. ...
The aim of the article is to show that although most countries in the Global South have been able to reduce absolute poverty, with a few exceptions they have not succeeded in catching up with the countries of the Global North. The conclusion of the article is that, especially after the neoliberal revolution in the 1980s, exploitative structures between developed and less developed countries have intensified, which in several dimensions resemble imperialism before World War I. The expansion of global value chains and foreign direct investment from the 1990s onwards has done nothing to change this. This result is explained by various theoretical approaches – absolute and comparative cost advantages, increasing economies of scale and global value chains. Only comprehensive industrial policy and ultimately an alternative model of globalisation can change the current crisis of globalisation.
... Imperialism was first broadly defined as 'the highest stage of capitalism' (Lenin, 1968). In Lenin's analysis, the possibilities and means for further expansion of capitalism had been exhausted in Europe and more space was sought beyond the borders. ...
In international relations analysis, rationalism has remained the dominant approach for a long time. In recent years, however, new approaches have challenged the hegemony of rationalist empiricism in the analysis of international relations. One of these alternative approaches is the constructivist approach. Constructivism argues for the importance of ideational units of analysis such as history, knowledge, and identity in the making of individual and state interests which lead to actions and policy. This paper applies discourse analysis in reviewing two major texts on how the history of capitalist imperialism shaped the relations between the North and the South. The paper shows the weakness of rationalist approaches to international relations research. Rationalism presents states as atomistic actors pursuing their military and economic power interests in a historically given space without regard for the ideational and historical factors deciding the nature of this space. The paper concludes that the relevance of the constructivist approach to international relations research, which is sometimes vehemently criticized, is seen in its ability to identify and apply important historical units of analysis that are normally overlooked and even deliberately discarded in rationalist international relations analysis.
... 36 Doyle (1986). 37 Lenin (1939) and Schumpeter (1950). 38 Gallagher and Robinson (1953). ...
What are empires and are they qualitatively different from other political forms like the state? Empire is a contested term. It is used in different and inconsistent ways in not only the lay discourse, but also in the social sciences. I contend that there is no stable definition, and that the employed meaning of empire by academics variously stresses purpose, process, and different aspects of structure. These usages can be contradictory because each meaning implies different conceptual limits to the concept of empire, resulting in surprising outcomes in terms of what counts. I do not argue that one meaning should be adopted over others; the term is contested, and scholars will employ the meaning that is consistent with their research agenda. However, I caution that conceptual stretching is bound to happen if scholars adopt a meaning from one discourse and apply it elsewhere.
... Economic dominance bought thempolitical relevance. Lenin (1975) adopts this approach in his epic explanation of World War I. He held imperialism liable for that war, and therefore had a need for clarifying the concept. ...
Decades ago Nigeria and the Asian Tigers of Hong Kong, Singapore, DTaiwan and South Korea enjoyed a comparable level of development.
The Asian Tigers have since left Nigeria behind in the quest for
development; the Tigers have moved from economic obscurity to global
economic prominence. Arising from the above, this paper examines the reasons
for the economic miracles in Asian Tigers and the economic stagnation of
Nigeria. The objective of the paper is to unearth the factors behind the economic
success of the Asian Tigers and see what lessons could be drawn for remedying
the Nigerian situation. The paper argues that the Nigerian leadership is
comprador in character while that of the Asian Tigers is nationalistic.
Thedifferentials in the character of the leadership explains the differences in the
level of development. The study was conducted within the framework of
Marxian political economy, and secondary data was deployed. The study
observed that the character of the leadership is the reason for economic failure in
Nigeria. Nationalist and endogamous leadership was the primary vehicle
responsible for the rapid development of Taiwan. Singapore, Hong Kong and
South Korea. On the strength of the observations, the paper recommended that
the Nigerian leadership should purge itself of its comprador character; the
people on their part should hold their leaders accountable, making them to
realize that the people are the ultimate boss.
... He sarcastically calls the atrocities of imperialism as -the rosy dawn‖ of capitalism to highlight to inhumanity that fuelled its initial growth. Moreover, Vladimir Lenin (1919Lenin ( /1999 goes as far as to argue that imperialism -undoubtedly represents a special stage in the development of capitalism‖ ...
This article examines the symbiotic relationship between capitalism and imperialism, as well as photography as a technology shaped by both, through an analysis of the dynamics of abstraction and extraction in R.F. Kuang's Babel (2022). It covers key aspects of abstraction through insights from Marx' Labour Theory of Value in addition to Said and Memmi's insights on stereotypes as abstract generalizations. It examines the material history of photography and silver extraction in relation to capitalist free trade and imperialist expansion. The article concludes with an examination of the role of colonial discourse in abstracting the non-western "other" to fuel war sentiments and facilitate dominion and resource extraction.
... At this point, the relationship among monopolist capitalism, finance capital and dependency should be discussed. Monopoly capitalism fundamentally refers to the monopolist stage of capitalism, in other words, imperialism, during which many small-and medium-scale capitals transform into few big-scale capitals and such big-scale capitals pursue colonial policies dividing and dominating world territories (see Lenin 1974). This transformation is essentially qualitative as well as quantitative as it brings about the emergence of finance capital. ...
While there has been a huge expansion of the literature on Turkish political economy and foreign policy in the last decade or so, fewer studies have explored Turkey’s engagement with the changing global political economy since 2008 in a holistic manner. Against the backdrop of the debates on the ‘rise of the Global South’ and the crisis and decline of the US-led Liberal International Order, this book interrogates Turkey’s ambitions to increase its regional and global economic, political, and military ‘footprint’ and the limitations thereof. The volume explores Turkey’s economic and political relations with diverse regions and countries, ranging from Latin America to sub-Saharan Africa, post-Brexit Britain to Iran, as well as rising powers India and China. Drawing upon various critical IPE/IR approaches, the book offers a critical perspective, challenging conventional accounts which tend to draw upon and reproduce rigid dichotomies.
... A year later in The Atlantic, Du Bois (1915b) argued that competition among colonial powers had triggered the First World War. Unlike Lenin (1917), who derived imperialist expansion and war from finance capitalism, Du Bois sketched a three-pronged argument. First, he described "industrial imperialism" as a system of extreme exploitation of colored labor, yielding "unusual returns." ...
This article explores the scholarly and journalistic contributions made by W.E.B. Du Bois to the history and theory of modern colonialism. Because Du Bois’s understanding of colonialism evolved radically over his lifetime, this article examines all of his relevant writing on the topic--nearly 300 separate texts, written between the 1880s and the twilight of his life. The article also traces the connections between Du Bois’s ideas about colonialism to changing intellectual, political, and personal contexts. While showing that there is no singular “Du Boisian” theory of colonialism, the article concludes that Du Bois made a number of important suggestions that can contribute to further colonial studies. Du Bois urged researchers to track historical transformations in the forms of colonial rule, to compare national styles of colonialism, to trace the connections between colonialism and class formation and racial oppression in the metropoles, and to focus on the ways colonialism stems from economic and political power motives as well as ideological discourses and other practices including racism. He argued that slavery ended in the New World when it became more profitable for European capital to exploit African labor in Africa. He supported the political program of amalgamating colonial-era political units into larger African states. He pointed to the relations between science and colonialism. The survey of Du Bois’s colonial studies is preceded by a brief discussion of postcolonial and decolonial approaches to canon revision and intellectual decolonization. Some of Du Bois’s statements could be read as violating sociology’s present-day norms, such as his support for certain forms of colonialism and his description of certain colonized populations as “semicivilized.” The article argues for a more tolerant, multiplex approach to historic thinkers that pays attention to the ways in which they may both conform to and move beyond the intellectual constraints of their time and place. Like Marx, Weber, and Durkheim, Du Bois should be retained in sociology’s canon.
... In contrast to Western Marxists' position that global financialized capitalism does not require a nation state, Patnaik and Patnaik maintain that "[t]he colonial state worked directly and exclusively in the interests of metropolitan capital, while the liberal state works directly and exclusively in the interests of international finance capital, which is the lead actor in the current epoch" (2016,33). In this way, Patnaik and Patnaik share Lenin's assertion that imperialism requires a state to expand and exploit the world for the benefit of workers and capitalists in the major powers (Lenin [1917(Lenin [ ] 1948. ...
... The Ghanaian diplomat Armah (2004) put it well: the pursuit of 'peace without power'. Classical Marxist imperialism (Brewer, 1980;Callinicos, 2009) as expounded by Hilferding (2006), Bukharin (1929[1966) and Lenin (1950) was embodied and corporealised (in the form of companies, especially the joint-stock company) in transnational monopoly and finance capital and its territory dominating concerns, and with it all interstate rivalries that culminated in wars. Nuclear imperialism (Allman, 2008;Hill, 2019;Mayoux, 2024) evinced the same cross-border attributes and domination concerns but in relatively more particulate (the atom and its components), dematerialised and invisibilised form and revealed rather starkly more than ever before the very technological nature of imperialism more broadly understood. ...
Digitalisation has become so pervasive in contemporary life as to almost define it. Digitalisation is underlined by the myriad ways in which daily life and living in the last 30 years has become decidedly entangled in digital artefacts, infrastructure and networks. The latest COVID-19 pandemic provides the most recent empirical, incontrovertibly global and demonstrable snapshot of this reality. This commentary concerns itself with what all of this means for Africa’s and, by extension, the Global South’s place in the scheme of global power mediated by the era of digitalisation by focusing on the idea of digital imperialism. While the idea of digital imperialism has been introduced in the burgeoning literature on digitalisation, it has been undertheorised and therefore egregiously neglected. Drawing insights from the fields of techno-politics, science and technology studies (STS), development studies and international relations, the commentary offers some conceptual building blocks wound around the idea of digital imperialism as a starting point for catalysing understanding about Africa and the power dynamics of the digitalisation turn in the global political economy.
The European colonial project of the nineteenth century has had long-lasting effects on the colonized. Although the transfer of political power from colonial to independent governments (political decolonization) was in most countries accomplished during the post-World War II era, economic decolonization has remained an incomplete project in many countries. Current patterns of production and export specialization in most former colonies, especially on the African continent, are a clear example of an incomplete decolonization project. Both the structure of the economy and economic activities have continued to be shaped by colonial and neocolonial power relations, which are evident in former colonized countries continued of supplying raw materials to the global economy. As the data presented in this article show, this has thwarted most efforts of former colonies (the Global South) to industrialize by building adequate productive capabilities. It is argued in this article that to the extent that the building of productive capabilities undermines the colonial and neocolonial economic relations and logic, it constitutes a fundamental act of decolonization. Industrialization in this sense is an act of decolonization because it enables countries to reduce various types of dependence on which the colonial and neocolonial project is anchored.
Using comparative historical analyses (CHA), the chapter traces Asia’s distinctive anti-colonial responses as the springboard toward understanding decoloniality in the Global East. These responses include nativist uprisings, cultural reformation, Marxism, and revolutionary nationalism. Along these responses are three decisive forces identified to be predecessors of anti-colonial social structural change and bedrock of the structure to new-found (twentieth century) nation-states in Asia. This paved the way to the Asian decolonial perspective viewed in a two-stage struggle. First is the bourgeois claim to the state, and then second is engaged via a triad of political forces called a bloco historico: the peasantry, the working class, and the petty bourgeoisie (Gramsci et al. in Subaltern Social Groups: A Critical Edition of Prison Notebook 25. Columbia University Press, 2021), engaging a social structural struggle against class oppression. Some Asian states had achieved this level. But some have yet to find their way.
This study examines the intersection of colonial and postcolonial memories, gender, and emotional dislocation in NoViolet Bulawayo's We Need New Names (2013). It explores how the novel portrays the enduring legacies of colonialism in shaping identity, cultural hybridity, and psychological experiences. While previous research has addressed themes of migration and cultural alienation in Bulawayo's work, there is limited analysis of the novel's engagement with colonial and postcolonial memories, particularly through the lens of gender and emotional trauma. This study addresses this gap by investigating how colonialism's lingering effects continue to shape individual and collective identities in postcolonial Zimbabwe. This research is grounded in postcolonial theory and trauma theory. Drawing on Edward Said, Homi Bhabha, and Frantz Fanon, the study examines hybrid identities and the internalization of colonial hierarchies. Additionally, trauma theory, as articulated by Cathy Caruth and Marianne Hirsch, provides insight into the emotional and psychological dislocation experienced by the characters, particularly in relation to migration and the intergenerational transmission of colonial trauma. A qualitative methodology is employed, using textual analysis and discourse analysis to examine the novel's representation of colonial legacies. We Need New Names was selected due to its critical engagement with postcolonial identity and migration. Findings reveal that colonial structures persist in economic struggles, cultural hybridity, and emotional alienation. Darling's migration to America highlights identity fragmentation, while language and cultural hybridity shape postcolonial selfhood. This research contributes to discussions on postcolonial identity, migration, and trauma. It underscores literature's role in reflecting historical and socio-political realities and deepens our understanding of identity formation in postcolonial societies.
The purpose of this article is to take advantage of historical hindsight in bringing into sharper focus similarities and differences among communist regimes in the USSR and Eastern Europe. The framework for this exercise recognizes several dimensions in three interrelated categories: the political formula, the political culture, and the structure, scope, and exercise of public authority. The questions that these categories suggest allow us to compare the Leninist, Stalinist, and post-Stalin regimes in the Soviet Union with the diverse communist regimes that evolved in East Europe in the more recent period. The contrasts established are not merely of historical relevance. They will also permit the student of contemporary Russia and China to engage in meaningful discourse about these countries' prospects.
This study empirically investigates the relationship between a country's household income share and its relative global manufacturing position. We develop the Relative Manufacturing Advantage (RMA) measure, defined as a country's share of global manufacturing output relative to its share of global GDP. We hypothesize that, due to manufacturing's high tradability, countries suppressing household consumption to subsidize production will achieve disproportionately large manufacturing sectors. Using crosscountry data from over 100 nations for 2022 and multiple OLS regressions, we find a robust negative relationship between household income share (proxied by household consumption as a percentage of GDP) and RMA. Extensive robustness tests, including two additional time-series models on China, strongly confirm these findings. Our results empirically support classical theories by Hobson (1902) and contemporary Neo-Hobsonian arguments by Pettis & Klein (2020), linking internal income distribution to external trade imbalances. We discuss significant implications: as major economies adopt industrial policies and reshoring, balancing manufacturing competitiveness without exacerbating inequality or global imbalances remains a core policy challenge. By connecting historical political economy insights with contemporary data, this study provides empirical evidence and practical policy guidance for achieving sustainable industrial growth.
Josef Weber (1901–1959) is remembered today for his mentorship of Murray Bookchin. However, not only are his own extensive writings neglected in the literature, but his pioneering utopian project has been almost entirely overlooked. This article examines the politics of utopia that shaped this project and suggests that Weber's critique of capitalism, state socialism, and environmental crisis can indeed be interpreted as an early eco-socialist and prefigurative form of politics. Yet, an important consequence of excavating Weber's account of politics, democracy, and socialism is that it complicates claims about the end of utopian vision in the immediate postwar period. I argue for a reading of Weber's utopianism that works between eco-socialism and prefigurative strategy, illustrating parallels with a radical realist approach to utopianism. This account of Weber's project provides a new historical lineage and contemporary justification for prefigurative eco-socialism.
Целью статьи является выявление особенностей дискурса инфлюэнсеров в условиях платформенного империализма на примере реакции на начало специальной военной операции. Автор демонстрирует динамику становления категориального аппарата в теориях империализма с момента появления термина до последних концептуализаций отдельных форм империализма. Автором рассматриваются такие формы или измерения империализма, как культурный империализм, медиаимпериализм, коммуникативный империализм, мягкая сила, «острая сила», цифровой колониализм, цифровой неоколониализм, цифровой империализм, платформенный империализм, блокчейн-империализм, империализм приложений. Более подробно рассматриваются концепции цифрового империализма и платформенного империализма, их основа и характеристики. Отталкиваясь от прошлых исследований и учитывая современный анализ рейтингов веб-сайтов и приложений, делаются выводы о страновых особенностях мировой платформенной экономики. Автор рассматривает феномен инфлюэнсеров в контексте платформенного империализма и концепции «третьих пространств». Инфлюэнсеры рассматриваются и как специфическая часть «виртуальной элиты», просьюмтариата, и как рабочая аристократия. Youtube анализируется в контексте событий специальной военной операции, цензуры на этой платформе и изменений в экономических аспектах функционирования платформы. Действия Youtube рассматриваются в логике платформенного империализма. В эмпирическом исследовании автором были проанализированы 100 каналов Youtube с наибольшим количеством подписчиков. Первоначально автор выявил каналы, на которых в конце февраля - начале марта 2022 г. размещался политический контент. Далее каналы с политическим контентом были подвергнуты процедуре критического дискурс-анализа. Автор делает выводы о характере действий инфлюэнсеров в условиях санкций Youtube и специальной военной операции. На основании этого делаются выводы о характере ценностей, которыми руководствуют инфлюэнсеры при создании контента.
This chapter discusses hegemons and processes that generate expected state behaviors that serve its interests. Indeed, gains from free trade or democratic norms do not constrain great power behavior but are exploited to gain power. The hegemon may generate a stable international order by establishing or promoting specific rules that shape state behavior. These behaviors serve the interests of the hegemon so that the hegemon may preserve its position in the long term. The hegemon will ardently defend the international system because it cannot divorce itself from its own creation. The hegemon may commit altruistic suicide, killing itself to save the collective system from being destroyed. Hence, this particular international political moment is important to study. Periods of transition are the exception to the norm. Studying exceptions to the norm, moments of international political transition, from unipolarity to multipolarity will help us to better understand international politics. Essentially then, rather than discussing the international system as one specific order (unipolar, bipolar, or multipolar), it is more beneficial to see it as always in flux. What may seem rational to the unipolar order such as NATO expansion may not be considered so for the multipolar order.
The Urhobo of present-day Delta State of Nigeria are generally migrants, who have settled in different parts of the country. Existing studies on Urhobo migrant communities in Nigeria have focused mainly on their settlement and agricultural activitiesin Southwestern Nigeria (Ikale, Okitipupa e Ilaje) with little attention paid to their migration to the Jos Plateau.This paper was, therefore, designed to examine the migration and involvement of Urhobo migrants in tin mining on the Jos Plateau with a view to analysing their contributions to the socio-economic development and involvement in political activities oftheir host community as well as their connection to their homeland since 1940.An historical approach was adopted, and an interpretative design was used. Primary and secondary sources were utilized. Primary sources included Provincial Reports, Ordinances and Intelligence Reports as well as newspapers and magazines.Oral interviews were conducted with key informants who were purposively selected based on their knowledge of Urhobo migrants’ experience and lifestyle in Jos. Data were subjected to historical analysis.Keywords: Urhobo, migrations, tin mining, Nigeria.
We examine how regime support coalitions influence interstate conflict by revisiting the classic debate over the role of business elites in shaping states’ conflict behavior. While imperialist theories argue that business elites promote military expeditions to access new foreign markets, capitalist peace perspectives contend that these elites favor peace due to their economic interests. We reconcile these views by proposing that countries become more belligerent when business elites are part of their regime-support coalitions but only when their potential adversaries are not similarly supported by business elites. To test this argument, we use a novel dataset on the composition of regime support coalitions covering 200 polities over two centuries. Our findings indicate that regimes backed by business elites are more likely to initiate armed conflict but not against other countries with business-elite-supported regimes. In addition, we uncover that the aggressive tendencies of business-elite-supported regimes are moderated by pre-existing trade relationships. These results contribute to our understanding of how domestic elite groups shape international conflict, offering new insights into the interplay between economic interests and state behavior.
International agri-investments have been increasing in Africa in recent years. This chapter contributes to existing discussions on the implications of such investments for the social and economic activities of rural communities in which most of these projects are carried out. The aim is to show the impact of investments for agricultural development and the possibility for rural industrialisation through the agricultural sector. The chapter is underpinned by a qualitative literature review and it utilises secondary sources available in grey and academic literature. It shows that international agri-investments have resulted in rural landlessness, insecurity of tenure, soaring poverty levels, social differentiation, stifled access to natural resources, and food insecurity across the African countryside. It concludes that outside the limited infrastructural development by international investment, the power imbalances by which they are characterised offer no prospects for meaningful development and industrialisation for rural dwellers. The chapter proposes deploying social policy as a development approach that can hold international agri-investments accountable for steering development and industrialisation in rural areas.
The rise of social media has revolutionised global communication, fostering connectivity, digital activism, and decentralised content creation. However, the political economy of social media reveals sectoral dominace by corporate capitalism, digital surveillance, and economic exploitation. This chapter examines the ownership and control of social media platforms, highlighting the monopolistic dominance of US-based tech giants such as Facebook (Meta), Google, and Twitter. It explores how these platforms commodify users as audience labour, generating revenue through targeted advertising and data surveillance.
Rhe chapter also explores the global inequalities in digital access (digital divide), exposing the power imbalance between platform owners, advertisers, and users. It revisits the cultural imperialism debate, analysing how Western-controlled social media reinforce global media hegemony through content dominance and algorithmic control. The discussion extends to state surveillance and corporate-government alliances, demonstrating how user data fuels both economic and political agendas.
By adopting a critical political economy perspective, the chapter challenges the techno-utopian narratives surrounding social media, revealing its deep entanglement with capitalist exploitation, neoliberal policies, and global power structures.
Keywords: Political Economy, Social Media, Digital Capitalism, Surveillance, Audience Commodification, Media Ownership, Cultural Imperialism, Digital Divide.
Torkil Lauesen’s analysis and practice is rooted in the understanding of imperialism as a major factor in the development of capitalism. It foregrounds the experience of the Global South and takes seriously revolutionary movements that won state power outside of the imperial core. The Long Transition Towards Socialism and the End of Capitalism is openly activist writing with an eye to the practical that has for far too long been missing from western academia.
Conceptual Definitions Colonialism is a vast and varied concept open to diverse interpretations and definitions. However, it consists of certain characteristics and tendencies which ultimately confer a measure of uniformity on the definitional varieties. The concept of colonialism connotes domination and controlof one country by another through the attributes of politicalpower and extension of economic control. It can also be viewedas a deliberate policy of extension and expansion of power andinfluence beyond the boundaries of the colonizing nation forthe purpose of expropriation and exploitation of natural resources of the colonized territory. Ocheni and Nwankwo (2012) argued that colonialism is the direct and overall domination of one country by another on the basis of state power being in the hands of a foreign power (for example, the direct and overall domination of Nigeria by Britain between 1900-1960) This implies a situation of annexation and occupation by force. In essence, colonialism is manifested through the use of political power by one country to impose her will on another country without the latter's consent. In his contribution, Horvath (1972) defined colonialism as a system of direct political, economic, cultural and religious domination of a weaker people or territory by a more powerful nation. In the same vein, Knoll Zeldin (2016) observed that colonialism can be understood as the establishment of foreign rule over a distant territory and the control of its people....colonialism and the colonial project include political and legal domination over a subordinate people, the exploitation of human and material resources and redistribution of those resources to benefit imperial interests. It is also noted that colonialism is the establishment, exploitation, maintenance, acquisition and expansion of colonies in one territory by people from another territory. It is a set of unequal
Vladimir Lenin is often thought of as a political theorist and politician. His contributions to political economy are often not given the credit as they deserve. His writings on capitalism are exemplars of the class approach to political economy. His work on imperialism innovatively develops some of the themes from Marx’s general law of accumulation in Capital, Vol. 1. Lenin remains wedded to the labour theory of value, theory of surplus value and the doctrine of the proletariat-led class struggle. While an avowed internationalist, he is deeply sensitive to the specificities of the Global South as Marx was. Lenin’s political economy utilizes empirical data which he interprets on the basis of scientific theory with the help of the philosophy materialist dialectics. Lenin also draws political implications of his ideas for the radical transformation of the world. This his political economy offers a unique combination of philosophy, theory, concrete analysis, and guidelines for political practice. The political economy discourse in Lenin’s time and in our time suffers from a series of problems as it offers many revisionist and inaccurate claims. These include denial of, or underemphasis on, numerous facts/processes in capitalist society such as the tendency towards class differentiation; impoverishment of workers; inevitability of periodic crises; importance of value relations; relevance of capitalist imperialism; and so on. The political economy discourse in Lenin’s time and in our time suffers from a series of problems as it offers many revisionist and inaccurate claims. These include denial of, or underemphasis on, numerous facts/processes in capitalist society such as the tendency towards class differentiation; impoverishment of workers; inevitability of periodic crises; importance of value relations; relevance of capitalist imperialism; and so on. Lenin’s political economy responds to these problems and advances a Marxist alternative on many of these themes.
The paper analyses the littleknown essay of one of the classics of economic thought, J. A. Schumpeter (1883—1950), “The sociology of imperialisms,” where he appears not as an economic theorist, but as an economic sociologist. Schumpeter was interested in the problem of imperialism almost throughout his scientific career. His theory was polemically directed against various Marxist interpretations, in which imperialism was viewed as a product of late (“monopolistic”) capitalism and which he subjected to sharp criticism. Schumpeter defined imperialism as objectless disposition on the part of a state to unlimited forcible expansion, finding examples of it throughout history from Ancient Egypt to the present day. Unlike Marxist authors, he saw capitalism not as a source, but, on thecontrary, as an antipode of imperialism. His key idea was that imperialism was an atavism that is rooted in social structures and psychological attitudes inherited by the modern world from the precapitalist era. According to his forecast, in the course of the further capitalistic development, these relics of the past will be eliminated and imperialism will disappear along with them. Many ideas expressed by Schumpeter in his essay are still of considerable interest.
This article aims at clarifying what is noonomy, how it differs from a knowledge-based economy in a neoliberal sense and what are the preconditions to achieve it. Furthermore,the author discusses the development of capitalism into imperialism and the evolution and changes of form if imperialism. She explains in five theses what is the present form of imperialism and what are the mechanisms and powers that are working on dismantling it and forming a multipolar world. She concludes that with the economic and societal leadership of China and military leadership of Russia the front of the decolonizer and anti-imperialist forces is broadening, and imperialism is weakening through delinking and the formulation of a multipolar world order that opens the way a better society that is based on a true and broad knowledge and can be called to noonomy or socialism as well.
The term 'State' occupies the highest place and central theme in the study of history, political science and international relations. The modern term "state" is derived from the word "status" earlier used by the German tribe 'Teutons'. The Greeks used the word 'Polis' to denote the 'city-state' and Romans used the term 'Civitas' which means state. It was the Italian scholar Machiavelli who used the term 'state' in political science in the modern sense. In politics the term 'state' means an association of people who live within a geographical area under an organised government and subject to no outside control. According to the Realists school of thought, state is the main unit in the interactions occurring in the international system, while to the Liberalists, International Organizations and Transnational Corporations are two other key actors in the interactions occurring in the international system. This paper is an attempt to explain the intricacy in the study of state with desire to structure and explain the processes which led to the birth of modern state, the purpose, functions and the entire concept in the hope of developing a device for imposing order and meaning on the complexities of international affairs.
The term 'State' occupies the highest place and central theme in the study of history, political science and international relations. The modern term "state" is derived from the word "status" earlier used by the German tribe 'Teutons'. The Greeks used the word 'Polis' to denote the 'city-state' and Romans used the term 'Civitas' which means state. It was the Italian scholar Machiavelli who used the term 'state' in political science in the modern sense. In politics the term 'state' means an association of people who live within a geographical area under an organized government and subject to no outside control. According to the Realists school of thought, state is the main unit in the interactions occurring in the international system, while to the Liberalists, International Organizations and Transnational Corporations are two other key actors in the interactions occurring in the international system. This paper is an attempt to explain the intricacy in the study of state with desire to structure and explain the processes which led to the birth of modern state, the purpose, functions and the entire concept in the hope of developing a device for imposing order and meaning on the complexities of international affairs.
No single theory reliably explains the wide range of international interactions, even though theoretical framework has traditionally held a central position in the study of international relations. Hence it becomes necessary to have such a framework for; otherwise, one may easily loose direction and once the ideas and the facts cannot be presented mutually the whole work loses meaning. Theories are therefore, necessary in intellectual and academic pursuits. It is because of this that scholars belonging to different camps write on the same thing differently. This is also why there are many models, methods and circles of thought as there are as much conflicting interests. Theories are developed in order to understand the causes of events that occur in international relations. Although theory depends on a logical deduction of hypotheses from assumptions and a testing of the hypotheses, as more and more data are collected in the empirical world, theories have to be improved and regulated by the analyst. This is for the avoidance of ambiguity which will probably create wary situation. Instrumentalist theorists believe that "theories are useful tools for making predictions but cannot be literally true or false". This paper has identified a number of concepts that are considered important in any meaningful study of international relations. It is pertinent therefore to highlight their theoretical meanings as this would enable us to appreciate their practical applications in everyday use in the relations between States over a long period of time. These concepts include: a variety of theories in international relation studies; the state; national interest; foreign policy; diplomacy; the international system; balance of power and so forth.
Türkiye’nin Ortadoğu Petro-Coğrafyasındaki Yeri: Kürt Kaçak Petrol Ekonomileri ve Eleştirel Petrol Çalışmaları
Özet
Ürettiğinden çok fazla petrol tüketen bir ülke olan Türkiye Ortadoğu petro-coğrafyaları, diğer bir ifadeyle petrol üretim, dolaşım ve tüketim mekanları ve aktörleri, düşünüldüğünde başat bir araştırma sahası olarak görülmemektedir. Türkiye çalışmaları da Ortadoğu’yu genellikle Türkiye’den ayrık bir politik coğrafya olarak ele almaktadır. Bu makale, Türkiye’nin, belirli bir petrol rezervine sahip olup olmamasından bağımsız olarak, Kürt kaçak petrol ekonomileri üzerinden Ortadoğu petro-coğrafyasının bir parçası haline geldiğini ileri sürmektedir. Özel olarak 1990’larda ortaya çıkan Türkiye, Irak ve Kürt coğrafyasını birbirine bağlayan bir kaçak petrol dolaşım biçimi olan Tekerlekli Petrol Boru Hattı’yla (TPBH) yine benzer dönemlerde ortaya çıkan ve Türkiye, Irak, Suriye arasındaki Kürt petro-coğrafyası içinde dolaşıma giren kaçak petrol rafinerisi teknolojisini inceliyorum. Böylelikle Türkiye’nin bölgesel devletler ve BM gibi uluslararası yapılarca dayatılan sınır, ticaret ve yaptırım rejimlerini boşa çıkaran kaçak petrol dolaşım biçimlerinin ve üretim teknolojilerinin geliştirildiği ve yayıldığı kritik bir saha olduğunu iddia ediyorum. Aynı zamanda kaçak petrol ekonomilerini ve bu ekonomiler içinden çıkan farklı aktör, pratik ve teknolojileri, Ortadoğu çalışmalarıyla petrol çalışmaları için yeni analiz izlekleri olarak öneriyorum. Bu izlekler için metodolojik milliyetçiliği aşmayı, devlet kategorilerini verili almamayı, devletlerce kriminalize edilen aktörlerin perspektiflerini incelemeyi ve bunun için de etnografik saha çalışması yapmayı ve sahadaki topluluklarla uzun süreli karşılıklı güven ilişkisi inşa etmeyi teklif ediyorum. Bu metodolojik yaklaşım kapsamında, araştırmacının öznel deneyimiyle yolculuğunun ve bu öznelliğin sahada üretilen bilgiye hem olumlu hem de olumsuz etkileri üzerine eleştirel bir özdüşünüm pratiğinin önemini vurguluyorum.
Anahtar sözcükler: Ortadoğu çalışmaları, petrol çalışmaları, kaçak petrol ekonomileri, etnografik saha çalışması, metodolojik milliyetçilik, araştırmacının öznelliği, eleştirel özdüşünüm
Turkey’s Place in the Middle East Petro-Geographies: Kurdish Contraband Oil Economies and Critical Oil Studies
Abstract
As a country that consumes far more oil than it produces, Turkey is not typically considered a prominent site for research on Middle Eastern petro-geographies—that is, the spaces and actors involved in oil production, circulation, and consumption. Similarly, studies on Turkey often view the Middle East as a separate political geography. This article argues that, regardless of whether it possesses significant oil reserves, Turkey has become a part of Middle Eastern petro-geographies through Kurdish oil smuggling economies. Specifically, I examine the Oil Pipeline on Wheels (OPW), a form of oil smuggling that emerged in the 1990s, connecting Turkey, Iraq, and Kurdish regions, as well as contraband oil refinery technologies that emerged and circulated within the Kurdish petro-geography spanning Turkey, Iraq, and Syria. I argue that Turkey must be understood as a critical site where contraband oil circulation channels and production technologies —designed to circumvent border, trade, and sanction regimes imposed by regional states and international organizations like the UN—are developed and disseminated. I propose contraband oil economies, along with the diverse actors, practices, and technologies they foster, as new analytics for Middle Eastern studies and oil studies. To pursue these analytics, I suggest moving beyond methodological nationalism, challenging the assumption of state categories as given, engaging with the perspectives of actors criminalized by states, conducting ethnographic fieldwork, and building long-term mutual trust relationships with communities in the field. Within this methodological approach, I emphasize the importance of critically reflecting on the researcher’s subjective experience and journey, considering both the positive and negative impacts of this subjectivity on the knowledge produced in the field.
Keywords: Middle Eastern studies, oil studies, contraband oil economies, ethnographic fieldwork, methodological nationalism, researcher subjectivity, critical self-reflection
The EU’s pursuit of the CAI with China was based on economic interest. Since the initiation of formal relations between the EEC and China in 1975, economic interest has been the core of EU policy, and as EU policy documents make clear, the penetration of the market in China by European companies has been a central goal of the EU. In its initial period the EU-China relationship was dominated by trade, both in terms of policy and real economic exchanges. In the 2010s investment moved to the top of the EU agenda, and the EU became the demandeur for the CAI. In the EU’s view, the relationship with China, including FDI, was unbalanced in favour of the latter. The relationship required rebalancing through what the EU called reciprocity and a level playing field. The CAI was a tool through which the imbalance between the open EU investment regime and the restrictive Chinese regime could be altered in favour of the interests of EU companies. However, this view of the lack of reciprocity in the EU-China relationship does not explain the EU’s pursuit of the CAI, which must be understood in a wider context of political economy. The centring of FDI in EU policy occurred following the crisis of 2008 in which China became the driver of global economic growth while the EU economy stagnated. While on the surface investment between the EU and China was small, EU investment in China became increasingly important to European economies and companies. Rather than being driven by the exclusion of EU FDI in China, the EU pursuit of the CAI was driven by increasing dependence of EU economies and companies on investment in China. However, the penetration of the market in China was not equally distributed among EU member states, with some benefitting much more than others.
Marksizm’in Avrupa şartlarında bir anlamda dışlamış olduğu ulusal sorun, çok uluslu Rusya’da Lenin’in hedeflediği sosyalist devrime giden yolda çözülmesi gereken öncelikli olanlardan biriydi. Bu sorunun çözümü, devrimin nihai hedefi olan sosyalist enternasyonalizm idealinin Rusya ölçeğinde bir sınanması olacağından, başarılı olması durumunda küresel barış için de orijinal bir çözüm imkânı ortaya konmuş olacaktı. Çalışmada, ulusal sorunun özellikle ulusların kendi kaderini tayin hakkı kapsamında hangi temel varsayımlarla ele alındığı Türkistan halkları açısından tahlil edilmektedir. Bolşevik Devrimi öncesi ve sonrasında ulusal sorunla ilgili Lenin’in görüşleri analiz edilerek, teorik düşüncelerini hayata geçirme fırsatı yakalamış bir lider olarak düşüncelerinde meydana gelen dönüşüme de temas edilmektedir. Makalede Lenin’in kendi yazıları yanında konuyla ilgili diğer çalışmalar da kullanılmaktadır.
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