Seminar Theories of Imperialism Authors Critics and empirically based Controversies

The notion of ‘Imperialism’ has been used for more than a century, both as a political slogan and as a scientific term to analyse interstate rivalries and their territorial expansion of political and economic power. While the term almost vanished after the Cold War with the optimism for a pacified world and the emergence of debates around ‘Globalisation’, the concept of Imperialism re-emerged in academia following 9/11 and the administration of George W. Bush in the United States. Authors like David Harvey, Ellen Meiksins Wood, Giovanni Arrighi, Leo Panitch or Alex Callinicos have debated the concept ‘New Imperialism’. In the first part of the seminar we will discuss and compare these approaches discussing the New Imperialism. Questions will be raised about the basic theoretical starting points of each author and how he/she integrates empirical observations to develop the theory and make it plausible. The second part of the seminar will focus on authors that criticise the basic assumptions of New Imperialism. As in the first part of the seminar, the basic theoretical starting points of these critics as well as their empirical references will be discussed. In the face of major controversies between the authors (e.g. on the position of the US in the world system, and the persistence or disappearance of the nation states and their rivalries), we will discuss in the last part of the seminar how far these theories and their integrated empirical references can explain current global relations. FB 05 Gesellschaftswissenschaften Uni Kassel WiSe 2012/13 Global Political Economy Dr. Banse Frauke