Global Capitalism, Global War, Global Crisis

Description

This book assesses the forces of social struggle shaping the past and present of the global political economy from the perspective of historical materialism. Based on the philosophy of internal relations, the character of capital is understood in such a way that the ties between the relations of production, state-civil society, and conditions of class struggle can be realised. By conceiving the internal relationship of global capitalism, global war, global crisis as a struggle-driven process, the book provides a novel intervention on debates within theories of 'the international'. Through a set of conceptual reflections, on agency, structure and the role of discourses embedded in the economy, class struggle is established as our point of departure. This involves analysing historical and contemporary themes on the expansion of capitalism through uneven and combined development, the role of the state and geopolitics, and conditions of exploitation and resistance. These conceptual reflections and thematic considerations are then extended in a series of empirical interventions, including a focus on the 'rising powers' of the BRICS, conditions of the 'new imperialism', and the ongoing financial crisis. The book delivers a radically open-ended dialectical consideration of ruptures of resistance within the global political economy. A Necessarily Historical Materialist Moment 3 The Centrality of Class Struggle 27 The Material Structure of Ideology 51 Capitalist Expansion Uneven and Combined 79 The Geopolitics of Global Capitalism 107 Exploitation and Resistance 131 Global Capitalism and Rising Powers 159 Global War and the New Imperialism 189 Global Crisis and Trouble in the Eurozone 217 Ruptures in and beyond Global Capitalism Global War 249 Bibliography 276 Index 316 Copyright