The relevance of Nicos Poulantzas for contemporary debates on ‘the international’

Abstract

This article argues that in many cases the theoretical resources for a revived and enriched ‘critical International Political Economy’ already exist, and we would do well to revisit earlier works when seeking to intervene in contemporary debates. Through an initial engagement with the recent plethora of contributions on ‘the international’, I contend that Nicos Poulantzas’ later writings deserve a rereading. In particular, his work on the historicity of territory and the internationalisation of capital constitutes a series of rich and suggestive commentaries. The significance of his remarks are later illustrated via a consideration of Germany, where I argue that the changes wrought by the growing imbrication of the German economy with transnational circuits of capital have been taking place through, and not necessarily against, the historicity of German capitalism's emergence and evolution.