War, Discipline, Imperium: American Absolutism and Global Class Struggle

Ronnie D. Lipschutz - University of California, Santa Cruz

In this essay, I argue that America’s Imperial Project has a 400-year history rooted in early religious beliefs and faith in the virtues of capitalism. Periodic religious revivals, such as that which began around 1980 and continues today, are correlated, if not linked to, social disruptions associated with industrial revolutions, on the one hand, and imperial adventures on the other. Finally, in this long historical context, might the Bush Administration’s “War on Terrorism” be seen as an absolutist effort to limit the vulnerabilities of global neo-liberalism and transnational jihadist social movements as manifestations of a global class struggle? - War, Discipline, Imperium: Absolutism and Global Class Struggle

http://www.socialsciences.manchester.ac.uk/disciplines/politics/researchgroups/cip/publications/documents/CIPworkingpaperno.1Lipschutz_000.pdf