Axis of Evil or Access to Diesel?
Spaces of New Imperialism and the Iraq War
In: Historical MaterialismSearch for other papers by Andreas Bieler in
Current site
Google Scholar
Search for other papers by Adam David Morton in
Current site
Google Scholar
This article examines how the Iraq War was a space in the ongoing geographical extension of global capitalism linked to us foreign policy. Was it simply the decision by a unitary, hegemonic actor in the inter-state system overriding concerns from other states? Was it an imperialist move to secure the ‘global oil spigot’? Alternatively, did the use of military force reflect the interests and emergence of a transnational state apparatus? We argue that the us imperium needs to be conceptualised as a specific form of state, within which and through which fractions of national and transnational capital operate. In so doing, the Iraq War is assessed as a moment in the extension of global capitalism in which the interests of a national fraction of capital within the us state form was dominant, thereby placing processes of class struggle and their relation to wider spaces of imperialism at the centre of analysis.
Purchase
Buy instant access (PDF download and unlimited online access):
Institutional Login
Log in with Open Athens, Shibboleth, or your institutional credentials
Personal login
Log in with your brill.com account
-
Agnew John ‘Capitalism, Territory and “Marxist Geopolitics”’ Geopolitics 2011 16 1 230 233
-
Anderson Perry ‘American Foreign Policy and Its Thinkers’ New Left Review 2013 II 83 5 167
-
Anievas Alexander ‘Theories of a Global State: A Critique’ Historical Materialism 2008 16 2 190 206
-
Anievas Alexander Capital, the State, and War: Class Conflict and Geopolitics in the Thirty Years’ Crisis, 1914–1945 2014 Ann Arbor University of Michigan Press
-
Arrighi Giovanni The Long Twentieth Century: Money, Power and the Origins of Our Times 1994 London Verso
-
Association of American Universities ‘National Defense Education and Innovation Initiative: Meeting America’s Economic and Security Challenges in the 21st Century’ 2006 9 April 2009 available at: <https://www.aau.edu/WorkArea/DownloadAsset.aspx?id=6424>
-
bbc News ‘“Appeal for Peace” on us-French Trade’ 2003 May 1 14 April 2009 available at: <http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/2991995.stm>
-
Bechtel ‘usaid Awards Bechtel National Iraq Infrastructure ii Contract’ 2004 January 6 27 December 2008 available at: <http://www.bechtel.com/newsroom/releases/2004/01/usaid-awardsiraq-infrastructure-2-contract/>
-
Bieler Andreas The Struggle for a Social Europe: Trade Unions and emu in Times of Global Restructuring 2006 Manchester Manchester University Press
-
Bieler Andreas, Bozkurt Sümercan, Crook Max, Cruttenden Peter S., Erol Ertan, Morton Adam David, Tansel Cemal Burak & Uzgören Elif ‘The Enduring Relevance of Rosa Luxemburg’s The Accumulation of Capital’ Journal of International Relations and Development 2014 doi: 10.1057/jird.2014.18.
-
Bieler Andreas & Morton Adam David ‘The Deficits of Discourse in ipe: Turning Base Metal into Gold?’ International Studies Quarterly 2008 52 1 103 28
-
Bieler Andreas & Morton Adam David ‘The Will-o’-the-Wisp of the Transnational State?’ Journal of Australian Political Economy 2013/14 72 23 51
-
Black Jeremy ‘Towards a Marxist Geopolitics’ Geopolitics 2011 16 1 234 5
-
Block Fred ‘Using Social Theory to Leap Over Historical Contingencies: A Comment on Robinson’ Theory and Society 2001 30 2 215 21
-
Bromley Simon Rethinking Middle East Politics: State Formation and Development 1994 Cambridge Polity Press
-
Bromley Simon ‘The United States and the Control of World Oil’ Government and Opposition 2005 40 2 225 55
-
Bromley Simon ‘Blood for Oil?’ New Political Economy 2006 11 3 419 34
-
Brzezinski Zbigniew ‘Hegemonic Quicksand’ The National Interest 2003/4 74 5 16
-
Bukharin Nikolai Imperialism and World Economy 1929 New York International Publishers [1917]
-
Burkeman Oliver ‘Bechtel Wins Contract Prize’ The Guardian 2003 April 18 14 April 2009 available at: <http://www.theguardian.com/world/2003/apr/18/iraq.oliverburkeman1?INTCMP=SRCH>
-
Cafruny Alan and Timothy Lehmann ‘Over the Horizon?: The United States and Iraq’ New Left Review 2012 II 73 5 16
-
Callinicos Alex ‘Imperialism and Global Political Economy’ International Socialism 2005 II 108 available at: <http://www.isj.org.uk/www.isj.org.uk/index37bf.html?id=140>
-
Callinicos Alex Imperialism and Global Political Economy 2009 Cambridge Polity Press
-
Callinicos Alex Anievas Alexander ‘Does Capitalism Need the State System?’ Marxism and World Politics: Contesting Global Capitalism 2010 London Routledge
-
Chandrasekaran Rajiv Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Baghdad’s Green Zone 2006 London Bloomsbury
-
Chomsky Noam Hegemony or Survival: America’s Quest for Global Dominance 2003 Harmondsworth Penguin Books
-
Chomsky Noam Failed States: The Abuse of Power and the Assault on Democracy 2007 Harmondsworth Penguin Books
-
Colás Alejandro & Pozo Gonzalo ‘The Value of Territory: Towards a Marxist Geopolitics’ Geopolitics 2011 16 1 211 20
-
Cox Robert W. ‘Social Forces, States and World Orders: Beyond International Relations Theory’ Millennium: Journal of International Studies 1981 10 2 126 55
-
de Brunhoff Susanne The State, Capital and Economic Policy 1978 London Pluto Press
-
de Graaff Naná & van Apeldoorn Bastiaan ‘Varieties of us post-Cold War Imperialism: Anatomy of a Failed Hegemonic Project and the Future of us Geopolitics’ Critical Sociology 2011 37 4 403 27
-
Flibbert Andrew ‘The Road to Baghdad: Ideas and Intellectuals in Explanations of the Iraq War’ Security Studies 2006 15 2 310 52
-
Gallagher John & Robinson Ronald ‘The Imperialism of Free Trade’ The Economic History Review 1953 II 6 1 15 1
-
Gereffi Gary, Humphrey John & Sturgeon Timothy ‘The Governance of Global Value Chains’ Review of International Political Economy 2005 12 1 78 104
-
Giroux Henry A. The University in Chains: Confronting the Military-Industrial-Academic Complex 2007 Boulder, CO Paradigm Publishers
-
Gramsci Antonio Hoare Quintin & Nowell-Smith Geoffrey Selections from the Prison Notebooks 1971 London Lawrence and Wishart
-
Guzzini Stefano ‘Marxist Geopolitics: Still a Missed Rendezvous?’ Geopolitics 2011 16 1 226 9
-
Halperin Sandra ‘The Political Economy of Anglo-American War: The Case of Iraq’ International Politics 2011 48 2/3 207 28
-
Harris Jerry Appelbaum Richard P. & Robinson William I. ‘The Military-Industrial Complex in Transnational Class Theory’ Critical Globalization Studies 2005 London Routledge
-
Harris Jerry The Dialectics of Globalization: Economic and Political Conflict in a Transnational World 2008a Newcastle-upon-Tyne Cambridge Scholars Publishing
-
Harris Jerry ‘us Imperialism after Iraq’ Race & Class 2008b 50 1 37 58
-
Hart-Landsberg Martin Capitalist Globalization: Consequences, Resistance, and Alternatives 2013 New York Monthly Review Press
-
Harvey David Gregory Derek & Urry John ‘The Geopolitics of Capitalism’ Social Relations and Spatial Structures 1985 Basingstoke Macmillan
-
Harvey David Justice, Nature and the Geography of Difference 1996 Oxford Wiley-Blackwell
-
Harvey David ‘The Geography of Capitalist Accumulation: A Reconstruction of the Marxian Theory’ Spaces of Capital: Towards a Critical Geography 2001 Edinburgh Edinburgh University Press [1975]
-
Harvey David The New Imperialism 2003 Oxford Clarendon Press
-
Harvey David The Limits to Capital 2006 New Edition, London Verso
-
Herring Eric & Rangwala Glen Iraq in Fragments: The Occupation and Its Legacy 2006 London Hurst and Company
-
Hirst Paul & Thompson Grahame Globalization in Question: The International Economy and the Possibilities of Governance 1999 Second Edition Cambridge Polity Press
-
Holloway John & Picciotto Sol ‘Capital, Crisis and the State’ Capital & Class 1977 1 2 76 101
-
Hossein-Zadeh Ismael The Political Economy of us Militarism 2006 Basingstoke Palgrave
-
Kautsky Karl ‘Ultra-imperialism’ New Left Review 1970 I 59 41 6 [1914]
-
Kiely Ray The New Political Economy of Development: Globalization, Imperialism, Hegemony 2007 Basingstoke Palgrave
-
Kiely Ray Rethinking Imperialism 2010 Basingstoke Palgrave
-
Klare Michael T. Blood and Oil: The Dangers and Consequences of America’s Growing Dependency on Imported Petroleum 2004 Harmondsworth Penguin Books
-
Klein Naomi The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism 2007 Harmondsworth Penguin Books
-
Kristol William & Kagan Robert ‘Toward a Neo-Reaganite Foreign Policy’ Foreign Affairs 1996 75 4 18 32
-
Lacher Hannes Beyond Globalization: Capitalism, Territoriality and the International Relations of Modernity 2006 London Routledge
-
Lenin Vladimir Ilyich Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism: A Popular Outline Collected Works 1964 Volume 22 London Lawrence and Wishart [1916]
-
Luxemburg Rosa DeCarlo Teresa The Industrial Development of Poland 1977 New York Campaigner Publishers [1898]
-
Luxemburg Rosa Schwarzschild Agnes The Accumulation of Capital 2003 London Routledge [1913]
-
Margesson Rhoda & Tarnoff Curt ‘Iraq: Recent Developments in Humanitarian and Reconstruction Assistance’ 2003 April 1 14 April 2009 available at: <http://fpc.state.gov/documents/organization/19705.pdf>
-
Marx Karl Moore Samuel & Aveling Edward Capital Marx/Engels Collected Works 1996 Volume I London Lawrence and Wishart [1887] Volume 35
-
McMichael Philip ‘Revisiting the Question of the Transnational State: A Comment on William Robinson’s “Social Theory and Globalization”’ Theory and Society 2001 30 2 201 10
-
Morton Adam David Unravelling Gramsci: Hegemony and Passive Revolution in the Global Political Economy 2007 London Pluto Press
-
Morton Adam David Revolution and State in Modern Mexico: The Political Economy of Uneven Development 2013 Updated Edition Lanham, MD Rowman and Littlefield
-
National Intelligence Council ‘Mapping the Global Future: Report of the National Intelligence Council’s 2020 Project’ 2004 4 January 2009 available at: <http://www.dni.gov/files/documents/Global%20Trends_Mapping%20the%20Global%20Future%202020%20Project.pdf>
-
National Security Council 2002 ‘The National Security Strategy of the United States of America’ 4 January 2009 available at: <http://www.whitehouse.gov/nsc/nss/2002/nss.pdf>
-
Nitzan Jonathan & Bichler Shimshon The Global Political Economy of Israel 2002 London Pluto Press
-
Nitzan Jonathan & Bichler Shimshon ‘Dominant Capital and the New Wars’ Journal of World-Systems Research 2004 10 2 255 327
-
Ollman Bertell Alienation: Marx’s Conception of Man in Capitalist Society 1976 Second Edition Cambridge Cambridge University Press
-
Ollman Bertell Dance of the Dialectic: Steps in Marx’s Method 2003 Chicago University of Illinois Press
-
Ó Tuathail Gearóid & Agnew John ‘Geopolitics and Discourse: Practical Geopolitical Reasoning in American Foreign Policy’ Political Geography 1992 11 2 190 204
-
Ó Tuathail Gearóid, Agnew John, Dalby Simon & Routledge Paul The Geopolitics Reader 1998 First Edition London Routledge
-
Panitch Leo ‘The New Imperial State’ New Left Review 2000 II 2 5 20
-
Panitch Leo & Gindin Sam Panitch Leo & Leys Colin ‘Global Capitalism and American Empire’ Socialist Register 2004: The New Imperial Challenge 2003 London Merlin Press
-
Panitch Leo & Gindin Sam Panitch Leo & Leys Colin ‘Finance and American Empire’ Socialist Register 2005: The Empire Reloaded 2005a London Merlin Press
-
Panitch Leo & Gindin Sam ‘Superintending Global Capital’ New Left Review 2005b II 35 101 23
-
Panitch Leo & Gindin Sam The Making of Global Capitalism: The Political Economy of American Empire 2012 London Verso
-
Paul Darel E. ‘The Siren Song of Geopolitics: Towards a Gramscian Account of the Iraq War’ Millennium: Journal of International Studies 2007 36 1 51 76
-
Politi Daniel & Verlöy André ‘Advisors of Influence: Nine Members of the Defense Policy Board Have Ties to Defense Contractors’ 2003 March 28 14 April 2009 available at: <http://home.earthlink.net/~platter/articles/030328-dpb-advisors.html>
-
Pozo Martin Gonzalo ‘A Tougher Gordian Knot: Globalisation, Imperialism and the Problem of the State’ Cambridge Review of International Affairs 2006 19 2 223 42
-
Project for the New American Century ‘About pnac’ 1997a 14 April 2009 available at: <http://www.newamericancentury.org/aboutpnac.htm>
-
Project for the New American Century ‘Statement of Principles’ 1997b 14 April 2009 available at: <http://www.newamericancentury.org/statementofprinciples.htm>
-
Robinson William I. Transnational Conflicts: Central America, Social Change and Globalization 2003 London Verso
-
Robinson William I. A Theory of Global Capitalism: Production, Class, and State in a Transnational World 2004 Baltimore Johns Hopkins University Press
-
Robinson William I. ‘The Pitfalls of Realist Analysis of Global Capitalism: A Critique of Ellen Meiksins Wood’s Empire of Capital’ Historical Materialism 2007 15 3 71 93
-
Robinson William I. Latin America and Global Capitalism: A Critical Globalization Perspective 2008 Baltimore Johns Hopkins University Press
-
Robinson William I. ‘Globalization and the Sociology of Immanuel Wallerstein: A Critical Appraisal’ International Sociology 2011 26 6 723 45
-
Robinson William I. & Harris Jerry ‘Towards a Global Ruling Class? Globalization and the Transnational Capitalist Class’ Science & Society, 2000 64 1 11 54
-
Rosenberg Justin ‘Why Is There No International Historical Sociology?’ European Journal of International Relations 2006 12 3 307 40
-
Sklair Leslie The Transnational Capitalist Class 2001 Oxford Wiley
-
Skocpol Theda States and Social Revolutions: A Comparative Analysis of France, Russia and China 1979 Cambridge Cambridge University Press
-
Stokes Doug ‘The Heart of Empire? Theorising us Empire in an Era of Transnational Capitalism’ Third World Quarterly 2005 26 2 217 36
-
Stokes Doug & Raphael Sam Global Energy Security and American Hegemony 2010 Baltimore Johns Hopkins University Press
-
Struna Jason Global Capitalism and Transnational Class Formation 2015 London Routledge
-
Teschke Benno The Myth of 1648: Class, Geopolitics, and the Making of Modern International Relations 2003 London Verso
-
Trotsky Leon The History of the Russian Revolution 1936 New York Pathfinder Press
-
Trotsky Leon ‘Results and Prospects’ The Permanent Revolution Results and Prospects 2007 London Socialist Resistance [1906]
-
Tsai Frederick ‘The False Binary Choice between Multilateralism and Unilateralism’ SAIS Review of International Affairs 2008 28 2 45 8
-
un World Investment Report 2008: Transnational Corporations and the Infrastructure Challenge 2008 New York United Nations available at: <http://unctad.org/en/Docs/wir2008_en.pdf>
-
usaid ‘Acquisition and Assistance Activities’ 2007 29 October 2008 available at: <http://www.usaid.gov/iraq/activities.html>
-
Van Apeldoorn Bastiaan & de Graaff Naná ‘Corporate Elite Networks and us post-Cold War Grand Strategy from Clinton to Obama’ European Journal of International Relations 2014 20 1 29 55
-
Van der Pijl Kees ‘Arab Revolts and Nation-State Crisis’ New Left Review 2011 II 70 27 49
-
Van Natta Don Jr. ‘High Payments to Halliburton for Fuel in Iraq’ The New York Times 2003 December 10 29 October 2008 available at: <http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/10/international/middleeast/10GAS.html>
-
Weiss Linda The Myth of the Powerless State: Governing the Economy in a Global Era 1998 Cambridge Polity
-
Wood Ellen Meiksins The Pristine Culture of Capitalism: An Historical Essay on Old Regimes and Modern States 1991 London Verso
-
Wood Ellen Meiksins ‘Unhappy Families: Global Capitalism in a World of Nation-States’ Monthly Review 1999 51 3 1 12
-
Wood Ellen Meiksins Rupert Mark & Smith Hazel ‘Global Capital, National States’ Historical Materialism and Globalisation: Essays on Continuity and Change 2002 London Routledge
-
Woodward Bob Plan of Attack 2004 New York Pocket Books
-
1
Colás and Pozo 2011, p. 219.
-
2
See Agnew 2011; Black 2011; Guzzini 2011.
-
3
van der Pijl 2011.
-
4
Cox 1981, p. 142.
-
5
Lenin 1964, p. 259.
-
6
Lenin 1964, p. 83.
-
7
Lenin 1964, pp. 275–6.
-
8
Bukharin 1929, p. 115.
-
9
Bukharin 1929, p. 54.
-
10
Bukharin 1929, p. 58.
-
11
Bukharin 1929, p. 149.
-
12
Bukharin 1929, p. 158.
-
13
Callinicos 2009, p. 72.
-
14
Callinicos 2009, p. 74. Different versions of a ‘two logics’ account of the new imperialism can be found in Harvey 1985 and Harvey 2003 as well as Arrighi 1994.
-
15
Callinicos 2009, p. 83.
-
16
Callinicos 2010, p. 21. Unsurprisingly considering the emphasis on a ‘realist moment’, Callinicos is charged with providing ‘a Marxist explanation that often reads like an excellent realist one’ (Pozo Martin 2006, p. 236, n. 12).
-
17
Callinicos 2005, p. 2.
-
18
Callinicos 2005, p. 7; Harvey 2003, p. 25.
-
19
Halperin 2011.
-
20
Stokes 2005, pp. 218, 230; and Stokes and Raphael 2010, pp. 35–8.
-
22
Ollman 2003, p. 80.
-
23
Ollman 1976, p. 47; see also Bieler and Morton 2008.
-
24
Ollman 2003, p. 5.
-
25
Bromley 1994, p. 34.
-
26
Bromley 1994, pp. 96–100.
-
27
Bromley 2006, p. 429.
-
28
Bromley 2006, p. 420; see also Bromley 2005, p. 254.
-
29
Kautsky 1970, pp. 44, 46.
-
30
Kautsky 1970, p. 46.
-
31
Lenin 1964, p. 272.
-
32
Bukharin 1929, pp. 137–8.
-
33
Panitch and Gindin 2012, pp. 4, 10–12.
-
34
Kiely 2010, p. 141.
-
35
Panitch and Gindin 2005a, p. 61; see also Kiely 2010, p. 146.
-
36
Panitch and Gindin 2012, pp. 179, 214.
-
37
Panitch and Gindin 2005a, p. 53.
-
38
Kiely 2007, pp. 30–9, borrows this term from Gallagher and Robinson 1953.
-
39
Kiely 2010, p. 163.
-
40
Kiely 2010, p. 233.
-
41
Kiely 2010, p. 234.
-
42
For example, see Panitch and Gindin 2005a, p. 47; Kiely 2010, pp. 242, 245, 246–7.
-
43
Panitch and Gindin 2012, pp. 7–12.
-
44
Panitch and Gindin 2005a, p. 53.
-
45
See de Brunhoff 1978, pp. 113–22. As Panitch and Gindin state, ‘the asymmetries of empire need to be factored into the interpenetration and evaluation of exchange rates, trade accounts, fiscal deficits, capital flows, international debt’ (Panitch and Gindin 2005b, p. 115). The reduction of American empire to finance and its informal characteristics can also be witnessed in Panitch 2000 and Panitch and Gindin 2003.
-
46
Bieler 2006, p. 50.
-
49
Robinson 2008, p. 30.
-
50
Hirst and Thompson 1999. For the expression of similar criticisms of fdi as an indicator of transnationalisation, see Anievas 2008, pp. 196–7, and Weiss 1998; for a response to Hirst and Thompson as well as Weiss, see Bieler 2006, pp. 50–4.
-
51
Gereffi, Humphrey and Sturgeon 2005.
-
52
Hart-Landsberg 2013, p. 20.
-
55
Skocpol 1979, p. 19.
-
56
Lacher 2006; Teschke 2003.
-
57
Wood 1991, p. 26.
-
58
Wood 2002, p. 19.
-
59
Marx 1996, p. 588.
-
60
Harvey 1985, p. 132.
-
61
Trotsky 1936, pp. 25–37.
-
62
Trotsky 2007, p. 27.
-
63
Rosenberg 2006, p. 319.
-
64
Trotsky 1936, p. 28.
-
65
Wood 1999, pp. 7–8.
-
66
Luxemburg 2003, p. 323.
-
67
Luxemburg 2003, p. 401.
-
68
Luxemburg 2003, p. 338.
-
69
Luxemburg 1977, pp. 120–1.
-
71
Luxemburg 2003, p. 108.
-
72
Luxemburg 2003, pp. 346–7.
-
73
Luxemburg 2003, p. 419.
-
74
Luxemburg 2003, p. 367.
-
75
Luxemburg 2003, p. 426.
-
77
Harvey 1996, p. 269.
-
78
Sklair 2001; Robinson and Harris 2000. For recent scholarship on the tcc including contributions by Sklair and Robinson, see Struna (ed.) 2015.
-
79
Robinson 2004, p. 21.
-
80
Robinson 2003, pp. 19–20; Robinson 2008, pp. 6–7.
-
81
Robinson 2011, p. 742.
-
82
Robinson 2004, p. 109.
-
83
Robinson 2007, p. 89.
-
84
Robinson 2007, p. 92.
-
85
Robinson 2004, p. 61.
-
87
Robinson 2003, p. 62.
-
88
Bieler and Morton 2013/14, pp. 34–5; Morton 2007, p. 148.
-
89
Anievas 2008, p. 197; see also pp. 199–203.
-
91
Harris 2008a, p. 55.
-
92
Harris 2005, p. 145.
-
93
See also Bieler and Morton 2013/14, pp. 31–7; Morton 2013, pp. 104–5.
-
94
Nitzan and Bichler 2002, pp. 208–12; Hossein-Zadeh 2006, p. 4.
-
95
Harris 2005, p. 142.
-
96
Hossein-Zadeh 2006, p. 4.
-
97
Harris 2005, p. 142.
-
98
Tsai 2008, p. 48. See also Anievas 2014, pp. 114–15, on how unilateralism-multilateralism are always-already present moments, or internally related aspects, of the extension of capitalist accumulation including the systematic use or threat of force and violence through formal and informal empire.
-
101
Harris 2008b, p. 39
-
102
Kristol and Kagan 1996, p. 20.
-
103
Project for the New American Century 1997a.
-
104
Project for the New American Century 1997b.
-
105
Chomsky 2003, p. 3.
-
106
National Security Council 2002.
-
107
Herring and Rangwala 2006, pp. 8–9.
-
109
Paul 2007, p. 69.
-
110
Giroux 2007, p. 15.
-
111
Giroux 2007, pp. 18–19.
-
112
Association of American Universities 2006.
-
113
Harris 2005, pp. 145–51.
-
114
Paul 2007, p. 65.
-
115
Chomsky 2007, p. 38.
-
116
Klare 2004, p. 62.
-
117
National Intelligence Council 2004, pp. 59, 62.
-
118
Brzezinski 2003/4, p. 8.
-
119
Cafruny and Lehmann 2012, p. 16.
-
120
Klein 2007, pp. 311, 313.
-
121
Woodward 2004, p. 163.
-
122
Klein 2007, p. 320.
-
123
Politi and Verlöy 2003.
-
124
Klein 2007, p. 320.
-
125
Klein 2007, p. 317.
-
126
Klein 2007, p. 319.
-
127
Harris 2005, pp. 145–6.
-
128
Van Apeldoorn and de Graaff 2014, pp. 45–6.
-
129
Burkeman 2003. See also Anievas 2008, p. 203.
-
130
Flibbert 2006, p. 321.
-
131
Nitzan and Bichler 2004, p. 257.
-
132
Nitzan and Bichler 2004, p. 258.
-
133
Margesson and Tarnoff 2003.
-
135
Chandrasekaran 2006, p. 12.
-
136
Van Natta 2003.
-
137
Bechtel 2004.
-
139
Panitch and Gindin 2012, p. 7.
-
140
Harvey 2001, p. 274.
-
141
Harvey 2006, p. 431.
| All Time | Past Year | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 2350 | 263 | 13 |
| Full Text Views | 829 | 81 | 26 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 1149 | 170 | 57 |
Axis of Evil or Access to Diesel?
Spaces of New Imperialism and the Iraq War
In: Historical MaterialismSearch for other papers by Andreas Bieler in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
Search for other papers by Adam David Morton in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
This article examines how the Iraq War was a space in the ongoing geographical extension of global capitalism linked to us foreign policy. Was it simply the decision by a unitary, hegemonic actor in the inter-state system overriding concerns from other states? Was it an imperialist move to secure the ‘global oil spigot’? Alternatively, did the use of military force reflect the interests and emergence of a transnational state apparatus? We argue that the us imperium needs to be conceptualised as a specific form of state, within which and through which fractions of national and transnational capital operate. In so doing, the Iraq War is assessed as a moment in the extension of global capitalism in which the interests of a national fraction of capital within the us state form was dominant, thereby placing processes of class struggle and their relation to wider spaces of imperialism at the centre of analysis.
| All Time | Past Year | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 2350 | 263 | 13 |
| Full Text Views | 829 | 81 | 26 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 1149 | 170 | 57 |