The Marxist debate on imperialism after World War II

Abstract

This article aims to present the Marxist debate on imperialism after the Second World War. In order to do that that we revisited the writings of Harry Magdoff, Ernest Mandel and Nicos Poulantzas. The background is the internationalization of production and the military alliance between the United States and Europe. The debate between the authors inscribes and/or rectifies the theses and polemics between Lenin and Kautsky on imperialism in the light of the transformations in international political economy after the second great conflict of the twentieth century. We believe that the systematized writings contribute to understanding imperialism as a key-concept for the analysis of contemporary international politics, especially when we have in mind the debate on US imperialism and inter-imperialist conflicts and the role of international organizations.