The Collapse of ‘The International Imagination’: A Critique of the Transhistorical Approach to Uneven and Combined Development

Sébastien Rioux

A chapter in Theoretical Engagements in Geopolitical Economy, 2015, vol. 30A, pp 85-112 from Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Abstract: Recent decades have witnessed great interest in Leon Trotsky’s idea of uneven and combined development (UCD) by Marxist scholars of International Relations (IR). A burgeoning literature has argued that one interpretation, Justin Rosenberg’s U&CD, resolves the question of ‘the international’ by offering a single, non-Realist theory capable of uniting both sociological and geopolitical factors in the explanation of social change across history. Evaluating this claim, this paper argues that the transhistorical ways in which U&CD has been developed reproduce, reaffirm and reinforce some of the more important shortcomings of Realist IR. I develop my argument through an internal critique of Rosenberg’s conception of U&CD, which, I argue, is illustrative of larger shortcomings within the literature. I conclude that the political and geopolitical economy of UCD and their dynamics must be grasped through the specific social and historical relations in which they are immersed.

Keywords: Uneven and combined development; international relations; geopolitical economy; Marxism; realism (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
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DOI: 10.1108/S0161-72302015000030A011

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