Morton, Adam David

Disputing the Geopolitics of the States-System and Global Capitalism

is part of Cambridge Review of International Affairs , XX , 4 , 2007
From the paper presented at the 4th European Consortium for Political Research (ECPR) General Conference,Pisa/Italy (6-8 September 2007) available on the web: http://www.essex.ac.uk/ecpr/events/generalconference/pisa/papers/PP1073.pdf  (Accessed September 29, 2007).
Alex Callinicos's intervention in the debate on the geopolitics of the states-system and capitalist modernity provides a crucial wake-up call to International Relations theory and practice. Yet, within the contending positions he outlines disputing the political economy of geopolitical conflict, inter-state rivalry, and capitalist imperialism, the insights of Antonio Gramsci are notably present by their absence. This article contributes to the debate by elaborating how the theory of passive revolution reveals the political rule of capital, thereby internally relating the states-system to capitalist modernity within a focus on uneven development. This concern is evident in Gramsci's analysis of the labour process of Anglo-Saxon capitalism and the geopolitics of the states-system contained within his survey of "Americanism and Fordism". Theorisation on the passive revolution of capital might then provide a fruitful basis from which an empirical research agenda on social development could be advanced with reference to postcolonial state formation processes.
Language eng
Names [author] Morton, Adam David
Subjects
Relazioni Internazionali
Stato moderno
Rivoluzione Passiva
Americanismo Fordismo
Modern state
International relations
Passive revolution
Americanism Fordism