The network of empire and universal capitalism: imperialism and the laws of capitalist competition.

Imperialism in the context of capitalism has been explained either in terms of the suspension of the laws of capitalist competition, or by focusing on the relationship of capitalism with pre-capitalist regions. This paper puts forward a theory of imperialism that is specific and internal to capitalism. The argument put forward in this paper is that the critical element of the empire of capital is the manner in which imperial power is exercised to bring the workers across the globe under the dominion of the network of capitalist relations. The distinctive logic of imperialism is understood to arise from the use of imperial power to expand the pool of available surplus value available for capital as a whole to exploit. It can be interpreted as the network externality of expanding the web of control of capital. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]