The international relations of imperialism

Abstract

Hobson's theory of imperialism is considered a theory of international relations. Despite this, the international aspects of the theory are ignored in descriptions in international relations that use instead an extrapolation of Hobson's account of domestic variables into international relations. As Kenneth Waltz points out, to make sense of imperial expansion, control and consequent wars, an account of the international context is required. Hobson provided this, although often rather briefly and in passing. Hobson's theory is not economic determinist because, for Hobson, the international relations of imperialism was the cause of the political manifestation of the new imperialism. The source of imperialism internationally was global political and economic competition between states for territorial monopoly and between financial and industrial trusts for commercial/financial monopoly. Underlying his discussion, Hobson understood imperialism to be a consequence of the confident belief that no real solidarity of interests exists between the various units of humanity, and that, therefore, it is possible for each person, class, or nation, to make a separate gain for himself by seizing and utilising the political and economic resources at his disposal. It was a product of sectionalism, not only domestically or in economics, but in international politics. Specifically, the new imperialism was the result of the political and economic competition of rival empires superimposed on the competition of trusts and cartels struggling to avoid the logic of underconsumption.