Globalization and War: State Power and the Enforcement of Neoliberalism.

A number of critical theorists of capitalist globalization argue that the power of capital is based on a consensus for global neoliberalism generated by a transnational bloc of capitalists, state officials, and intellectuals. I argue in this paper that these theorists minimize the role that coercive state power has played in supporting capital accumulation, and as a result they underestimate the continued significance of the nation-state in capitalism. The U.S. invasion of Iraq illustrates the central role of the nation-state in global capitalism in two ways: first, by revealing intense levels of inter-capitalist rivalry; and second, by demonstrating the determination of the U.S. to ensure that neoliberalism is imposed unilaterally through force if necessary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]