2. Imperialism and geopolitical disorder

Outline:

I. 20th-century imperialism

Basics of Lenin’s theory

Cold War imperialism and wars of national liberation

Consumerist imperialism: oil and cars

II. Neoliberal globalization and the ‘war on terror’

Imperialism and global inequality: Claudio Katz’s theses

Supply chains: from national to global

Accumulation by dispossession (David Harvey)

Armed globalization and the ‘clash of barbarisms’

III. Neoliberalism’s apogee: hyperglobalization

NAFTA (1993), Maastricht (1992), WTO (1995)

China’s rise, phase I: Foxcomm and Walmart – the role of Hong Kong

Latin America’s Pink Tide (and extractivism): challenge and crisis

IV. Imperialism in crisis (from 2008)

China’s rise, phase II: trade wars, sea lanes, One Belt One Road – and Hong Kong

Crises in the Middle East

Clashes with Russia

Brexit, Trump and the new far right

A Latin American Trump: Bolsonaro (and his divided opposition)

Covid-19: nail in the coffin of hyperglobalization

V. And now Biden

Main lesson of election: enduring strength of far right

Back to Obama? – the US, China, ‘the Quad’ & Europe

Openings for the left?

• V. I. Lenin, Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism, (Excerpts), 1917

• Claudio Katz, "Imperialism in 21st Century", (Excerpts) 2002

• excerpts from: David Harvey - The 'New' Imperialism: Accumulation by Dispossession 2004

• Fourth International [http://internationalviewpoint.org/spip.php?article5447 Capitalist globalization, imperialisms, geopolitical chaos and their implications, excerpts: part I, II, IV

• Alex Callinicos, "Brexit: a world-historic turn", International Socialism 151, 27 June 2016, excerpts

• Pierre Rousset, What could be the international implications of Donald Trump’s election? Questions on the evolution of the global geopolitical situation, up to subhead 'Impact on the relationship of forces between powers'

• Fourth International Capitalist globalization, imperialisms, geopolitical chaos and their implications, excerpt: IX