Alex Callinicos is Professor of European Studies at King's College, London.

* Epigraph * Introduction: Empire of Theory, Theories of Empire * Part I: Theory * 1. The Classical Legacy * 1.1 Continuing Marx''s Capital * 1.2 Luxemburg''s fertile diversion * 1.3 The Lenin-Bukharin synthesis * 1.4 Organized capitalism and economic crises * 1.5 Spectres of ultra-imperialism * 2. Capitalism and the State System * 2.1 Rethinking the theory of imperialism * 2.2 Conceptualizing the state system * 2.3 Interests and ideologies * Part II: History * 3. Capitalism and La Longue Duree * 3.1 What is capitalism? * 3.2 Markets and empires * 3.3 The sinews of capitalist power * 4. Ages of Imperialism * 4.1 Periodizing imperialism * 4.2 Classical imperialism (1870-1945) * (i) A liberal world economy * (ii) An economically and politically multipolar world * (iii) Territorial expansion * (iv) Military competition and state capitalism * (v) Race and empire * 4.3 Superpower imperialism (1945-1991) * (i) Open Door imperialism * (ii) The partial dissociation of economic and geopolitical competition * * (iii) The Third World - malign neglect and partial industrialization * 5. Imperialism and Global Political Economy Today * 5.1 The specificity of American imperialism * 5.2 Global capitalism at the Pillars of Hercules? * (i) Entrenched uneven development * (ii) A persisting crisis of profitability * (iii) A redistribution of global economic power * (iv) Continuing geopolitical competition