Hyper-Imperialism
By Greg Chung
On the hundredth anniversary of Lenin’s death, the Tricontinental Institute of Social Research released a 21st-century update to Lenin’s monumental pamphlet, Imperialism: The Highest Stage of Capitalism. In its latest study, “Hyper-Imperialism,” Tricontinental explores how the United States, desperate to reverse its decline, is aggressively dragging the whole world into war, both conventional and economic. On March 9th, No Cold War hosted a panel of intellectuals, activists, and journalists from around the world to discuss how hyperimperialism has affected the Global South, from blockades in Latin America, to a militarized island chain in the Indo-Pacific, and bankrolling genocide in the Gaza Strip.
According to panelist Vijay Prashad, imperialism has gone through four phases. First, European empires jockeyed for power and influence, culminating in two world wars. Following the end of World War II in 1945, the world was divided into two camps. The old capitalist powers were absorbed by the United States, while the Soviet Union created a socialist camp. At the same time, newly liberated colonies attempted to maintain independence from both camps through the non-aligned movement. After the Soviet Union collapsed, the United States established a unipolar order, defined by unrestrained markets, which were enforced by the US’s financial and military power. Now, we are entering a multipolar phase where emerging countries in the Global South are contesting the US’s global hegemony.
How is the World Split?
Diagram of the four rings that make up the Global North (Source: Tricontinental Institute of Social Research)
The Global North and Global South are not just geographic terms but refer to an explicitly political relationship. The Global North is an integrated political, economic, and military bloc. At its center is the United States, which molds the world system to the interests of its capitalist class. The center also includes the United Kingdom, other Anglophone settler states, and Israel. These states represent the inner core of imperialism, represented by their membership in the highly secretive Five Eyes spy network, of which Israel is an unofficial sixth member.
Next are the nine core nations in Western Europe, which are also at the top layers of the global supply chain and are a part of the expanded Nine Eyes spy network. Japan and several smaller European states, such as Greece and Italy, make up the next ring. These countries, especially Japan, lack the level of integration and influence of the inner rings but are strategic in maintaining US hegemony. The outermost ring is made up of the former communist states in Eastern Europe. Through political, economic, and military intervention, these countries were brought into the US camp. Altogether, these countries make up only 14.2 percent of the world's population but account for 40.6 percent of the world’s GDP (PPP). The US-led military bloc also makes up a shocking 74.3 percent of the world’s military spending (the US alone makes up over 50 percent).
Map divided between the different groupings within the Global South (Source: Tricontinental Institute of Social Research)
The Global South is the remaining 85 percent: the other 145 UN countries. Unlike the Global North, the Global South is not a unified bloc. The Global South is instead roughly divided into six groupings: the socialist countries (i.e., China, Venezuela, Vietnam, Laos, Cuba, and the DPRK); the states seeking sovereignty, including Russia and Iran; the historically progressive states such as South Africa and Bolivia; the newly non-aligned states, such as India and Turkey, whose bourgeoisie have interests that conflict with their Global North counterparts; the diverse global south, which represents the vast majority of the world; and, finally, the nations that are less defined but connected by their strong association with the United States, such as South Korea and the Philippines.
The North denies the South sovereignty and access to the most profitable sectors, while the South’s natural wealth and labor are extracted for global accumulation. The United States enforces this system through military interventions and financial institutions, such as the International Monetary Fund, which uses predatory loans to impose austerity policies and trap the Global South in debt. This trickle-up flow of wealth forces the Global South into a state of poverty and mass unemployment. In Brazil alone, global extraction has pushed 70,000 workers outside of the productive sphere.
Changing Terrain
In the past thirty years, economic growth in the Global North has consistently declined, while the Global South has seen a trend in the opposite direction. In 1993, the Global North accounted for 57 percent of the global GDP (PPP), while the Global South accounted for just 42.8 percent. By 2023, the Global South’s rapidly grew to nearly 60 percent of the world’s GDP, while the Global North’s share dropped to around 40 percent. The changing global terrain is emboldening the ruling class in many developing countries to contest the limits imposed by the US-based order.
One of those countries, China, is integrating itself closer to the Global South through institutions such as the Belt and Road Initiative and the Import-Export Bank, which invests more loans to the Global South than the World Bank. The alternative economic bloc BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) is also threatening the IMF’s monopoly on global finance through the New Development Bank and the Contingency Reserve Arrangement. The latter is an emergency reserve that protects the liquidity of developing countries, while the former offers the Global South loans for infrastructure and industrial development.
Hybrid War
Global hegemony is made up of three pillars: economic, financial, and military. To maintain its rule, the US is attempting to reassert its economic monopoly and flex its financial and military muscle. Sri Lankan anthropologist, Darini Rajasingham-Senanayake noted during the panel that the IMF is undercutting Chinese loans through a three-pronged strategy. The first is to get countries to keep borrowing from the same vulture funds and expand these loans into domestic debt. The second is to force governments to adopt austerity policies, such as defunding and privatizing essential public services. The final prong is to force borrowers to sell off strategic resources, such as infrastructure, land, and energy.
When debt traps are not enough, the US relies on sanctions to discipline any nation that tries to pursue an independent path. After the Venezuelan government pushed for regional integration and an end to the Monroe Doctrine, the US declared Venezuela “an extraordinary threat to national security and foreign policy.” President of the Simon Bolivar Institute, Carlos Ron, states that while the idea that Venezuela, a nation whose economy and military are a fraction of the size of that of the US, is a national security threat is laughable, it did not stop the US from engaging in 930 measures that violated international law and instigating one of the harshest embargoes in South America.
However, as we have seen with Israel, the US saves its most criminal acts for its military. As previously stated, Israel has a special relationship with the United States. In a region where foreign extraction of natural resources, especially oil, has brewed popular resentment against the US, Israel is the one outlier as its consistent ally and the US has rewarded Israel handsomely. Israel is the largest recipient of US foreign aid since WW2 and two-thirds of its military imports come from the US.
Israel’s genocide in Gaza is linked to the US’s attempt to build the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC), an economic corridor that would block Chinese integration and influence in the region. As Israeli attacks kill over 30,000 Palestinians and displace 85 percent of the population, journalist and author Lowkey calls attention to the fact that the world’s largest oil and gas companies signed deals with the Israeli government to explore oil and gas around the Gaza Strip.
The Path Forward
Even as the US attempts to cling on to its hegemony, the Global South continues to rise on the world’s stage. By 2030, BRICS+ is expected to contribute over 50 percent of the global GDP. Under former Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff, the National Development Bank is attempting to break the hold of dollar imperialism by trading in local currencies.
Many of these same states, which are connected to the Group of Friends in Defense of the UN Charter, have also called for reforms in US-dominated international institutions. Besides their landmark case at the International Court of Justice, South Africa is leading the fight to “democratize” the UN Security Council. Greater integration within the Global South is also breathing new life into the national liberation struggle. As Rania Khalek of Breakthrough News has pointed out, Palestinian armed resistance would not have reached the scale it did without military assistance from Iran, made possible due to China defying US sanctions.
While multipolarism is partly driven by the bourgeoise excluded from the Global North, it is also opening up opportunities to build socialism in the Global South. One outcome of the emerging multipolar era is the International People’s Assembly (IPA). To build a new international order that breaks with capitalism and neocolonialism, the IPA organizes mass organizations in the Global South and even in the Global North, where military adventures fueled by low-wage labor and austerity have brought socialism back into the mainstream. The hyper-imperialist era is filled with contradictions and uncertainty, but it is still up to the wretched of the earth to pave a new path.