On the topicality of the concept of imperialism concerning the relations among States

Abstract

The late 1980s marked an important moment in terms of capital expansion. Thus, several authors and international organizations adopted the term globalization to explain the world transformations that occurred in the last decades of the 20th century. Such transformations would have as a backdrop the weakening of the power of nation-state. Certain authors of Marxist influence followed this path, arguing (neoliberal) globalization would mark a transition to a new historical phase. Some claim that globalization would have overcome imperialism, or that globalization would be a new form of imperialism, while others began to use these two concepts almost indistinctly. The aim of this article is to demonstrate the current explanatory power of the concept of imperialism to describe relations among States. The term globalization describes a capitalist world without borders, unified and accessible to a supposedly stateless capital, obscuring or even denying fundamental aspects regarding the functioning of the international system. Therefore, it suppresses the possibility of detecting a series of problems related to the historical development of exploitative relations in capitalism and to the role of imperialism as a theoretical and historical reference