Geopolitical Economy and the Chimera of Hegemony

A Review of Geopolitical Economy: After US Hegemony, Globalization and Empire by Radhika Desai

In: Historical Materialism
Author: Rowan Lubbock 1
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  • 1 Department of Politics, Birkbeck, University of London
Online Publication Date:
29 Mar 2019
In:
Volume 27: Issue 1
Article Type:
Review Article
Page Count:
281–293
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1163/1569206X-00001508
Keywords:
geopolitics; Marxism; historical sociology; class formation; imperialism

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Abstract

This review critically engages with Radhika Desai’s concept of geopolitical economy as a framework for understanding the evolution of the capitalist state system. While presenting a useful challenge to many of the most deeply-held beliefs in International Relations theory, Desai’s over-reliance on a geopolitical lens produces a relatively one-sided account of the ways in which capitalism forges distinct international regimes and ideological formations under a given set of historical conditions of possibility. Thus, Desai’s somewhat opaque reading of the international relations of capitalism clouds our understanding of what the current conjuncture might entail for any possible future beyond the social discipline of capital.

In:
Historical Materialism
E-ISSN:
1569-206X
Print ISSN:
1465-4466
Publisher:
Brill
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