BOOKS: Postmodern Imperialism -- Geopolitics and the Great Games. By Eric Walberg (Jim Miles)

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Postmodern Imperialism -- Geopolitics and the Great Games. Eric Walberg. Clarity Press, Inc., Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.A., 2011.

July 17, 2011 (Palestinian Chronicle) -- The many stages of imperialism are often brought into debate about whether the current U.S. foreign policy, or any U.S. foreign policy, is an imperial project.

Eric Walberg’s clear and concise presentation of the “great games” centred on the ancient Silk Road from China through to Eastern Europe presents a definition of imperialism that spans all of humanities’ empires. The “Foundations … of imperial hegemony are financial and military-political, to ensure control of world labour power and raw materials.” This reflects my own interpretation of empire as being founded on the gathering in of wealth and power to the heartland from the hinterland, from a cultural geography perspective. Walberg uses the terms heartland and rimland, the same idea, focusing intentions on the heart of Eurasia and the surrounding countries’ resources, wealth, and manpower.

One of Walberg’s underlying and recurring themes is financial -- the power of money and the control of money in the establishment of empire. This precludes any arguments about the necessity of an empire having a land base, or naval control, or air superiority, the actual sequence of empires from antiquity through to today’s troubled world. Walberg goes even further than most in his definitions of empire, rightly so, as he examines the 'banksters' (my usage, a term that should fit within the normal lexicon of financial arguments today) -- the “international banking elite” who are “acting independently of governments” in order to coordinate “the financial elites of various empires through their central bankers.”

His argument is well supported as he takes the reader through the “Great Games” of the Middle East and the rise and fall of financial power in relation to the rise and fall of empires trying to gain hegemony over the resources of the Middle East and South Asia.

more

http://worldnewstrust.com/books-postmodern-imperialism-geopolitics-and-the-great-games.-by-eric-walberg-jim-miles.html

[mckara]

1. Informal Empires

This looks interesting. Thanks for the recommendation.