text:
The no-deal documents that the government didn't want to release
Ministers have been forced to publish details of concerns about public disorder and disruption to medicine and fuel supplies.
By Greg Heffer, political reporter
Thursday 12 September 2019 17:19, UK
Image: Details of the possible impact of a no-deal Brexit have now been published by the government
The government has released documents relating to its "Operation Yellowhammer" preparations for a no-deal Brexit.
Having been ordered to reveal the details by MPs, the five pages published on the government website warn of a rise in public disorder, delays lasting three months at Channel crossings, "significant" electricity price rises and impacts on medicine and food supplies.
The documents have been released after opposition MPs defeated the government in the House of Commons on Monday to order their publication.
Image: There could be delays lasting three months at Channel crossings
Opposition MPs had also demanded the release of private messages between key Downing Street aides - including on WhatsApp and Facebook - over Boris Johnson's five-week suspension of parliament.
The government has refused this request, describing it as "inappropriate".
The "reasonable worst case planning assumptions" of Operation Yellowhammer detail:
The worst disruption at Channel crossings might last for up to three months before improving
Lorries could face maximum delays of two-and-a-half days before being able to cross the UK border
Possible immigration delays for UK holidaymakers at the Channel Tunnel, ferry crossings and airports
A likelihood of "significant" electricity price rises in Northern Ireland
Medicine supplies will be "particularly vulnerable to severe extended delays"
A potential reduction in the UK's ability to prevent animal disease outbreaks due to reduced supplies of veterinary medicines
Supplies of some fresh food will decrease, while supermarket prices may also rise
Panic buying could increase food supply problems
The possibility of urgent action to ensure access to clean water if there is a failure in the supply of chemicals - although the likelihood of this is considered "low"
Disruption in law enforcement data sharing between the UK and EU
Concerns that Gibraltar has not prepared well enough for a no-deal Brexit
"Significant amounts" of police time being taken up by protests and a possible rise in public disorder
The risk of disruption to fuel supplies in the South East of England
Possible clashes between UK and EU fishing vessels
UK efforts to avoid a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland are "likely to prove unsustainable"
The document also warns the readiness for a no-deal Brexit among the public and businesses will "remain at a low level and will decrease to lower levels" due to uncertainty over the nature of the UK's exit from the EU.
This readiness will be "further limited" by what the document describes as "increasing EU exit fatigue".
Image: 'Significant amounts' of police time might be taken up by protests
The timing of a possible no-deal Brexit on 31 October also coincides with seasonal risks such as severe weather, flooding and flu outbreaks.
This could exacerbate a number of impacts of a no-deal Brexit and stretch resources, the document adds.
The end of the UK growing season and preparations for Christmas could also increase pressure on food supplies.
One paragraph of the document has been redacted due to "commercial sensitivity", the government said.
Some of the Operation Yellowhammer details had already been leaked to The Sunday Times earlier this month, while opposition MPs questioned whether the government had released the full documents.
Image: Supplies of some fresh food could decrease
Following the publication of the papers on Wednesday night, Michael Gove - the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and the government minister in charge of no-deal planning - said: "The document is neither an impact assessment, nor a prediction of what is most likely to happen.
"It describes what could occur in a reasonable worst case scenario, thus providing a deliberately stretching context for government planning to ensure that we are prepared for exit."
Labour shadow Brexit secretary Sir Keir Starmer said the documents "confirm the severe risks of a no-deal Brexit".
He added: "It is completely irresponsible for the government to have tried to ignore these stark warnings and prevent the public from seeing the evidence.
"Boris Johnson must now admit that he has been dishonest with the British people about the consequence of a no-deal Brexit.
"It is also now more important than ever that parliament is recalled and has the opportunity to scrutinise these documents and take all steps necessary to stop no-deal."
Image: There are concerns Gibraltar has not prepared well enough for a no-deal Brexit
Former justice secretary David Gauke, who served in Theresa May's government, said: "If anyone wondered why so many ministers in the last government are strongly opposed to a no-deal Brexit, read the Yellowhammer documents.
"But the problems with no deal don't end with the short-term disruption. It's in the long-term when the real damage will be done."
His fellow former Conservative minister Phillip Lee, who is now a Liberal Democrat MP, described the Operation Yellowhammer details as "remarkable" and "explosive".
He also questioned whether it was the full document, telling Sky News: "There's obviously more to see.
"If you look at the details of this document, it is shocking.
"Really, did people vote in 2016 to have problems accessing clean water? Did they vote to have problems accessing necessary emergency medicines?
"Did they vote to have to have problems with access to fresh food? Of course they didn't."
:: Analysis: These five pages serve as a stark warning about the potential fallout from a no-deal Brexit
by Sam Coates, deputy political editor
When Boris Johnson came into Downing Street he said there would be bumps in the road if there is a no-deal Brexit.
In the last 10 days he has been having conversations with Conservative MPs.
One-on-one conversations.
I've spoken to two Tory MPs who were speaking to Mr Johnson in the context of the rebellion that took place last week that saw 21 other Tories chucked out.
They said he talked to them both about how he wanted a deal, and then he started talking about no-deal using language that they both said they hadn't heard before.
He said that while individual problems could be mitigated for no-deal, he was aware of the enormous challenge that came with all of these potential problems all at once.
And that was an issue that frankly he didn't want to see arise.
The political context of this conversation was that he was trying to convince these two Tory MPs he was sincere about getting a deal, something that they had not been sure that he was.
And he was trying to convince them that he was more on their side than perhaps his public positioning might suggest.
But you could just take what the prime minister appears to have said at face value - that all put together, these challenges are pretty eye-watering and not even necessarily political sustainable.
From the last 30 years of British political history, any one of the potential outcomes outlined in the document would be a national emergency and a crisis on an epic scale.
In 2001 we saw a lorry strike cause restricted access to fuel at the petrol pumps, and Tony Blair decided to delay a general election until it was sorted.
That's the sort of consequence that you might see if there is a no-deal Brexit because of disruption at the border.
This five-page document outlines lots and lots of those challenges.
These stark warnings tonight from officials from Theresa May's government in August suggest that the checklist of things the government would need to sort out is enormous.


Snow Removal Costs are Rising: More $$$ This Week?
City officials, the Department of Public Works and the city's private snow removal vendors are bracing for another winter storm, the fourth since February 17.
If this storm proceeds as expected, the city will have another 10 inches of snow dumped onto it, requiring another heavy effort to get it all plowed to keep our roads passable and then to remove what has been plowed.
The most recent and severest storm March 12 cost the city $104,000 according to officials in the mayor's office.
The likelihood of another storm Wednesday and Thursday of similar magnitude will likely cost the city an additional $100,000 if the costs of this storm are to be compared with removal for the last storm.
The two storms in March so far have cost the city $145,000.
Add in the February storm and the total is about $180,000.
The expected storm Wednesday and Thursday will add an additional $100,000 bringing the 5 week total to about $280,000.
In addition, weather forecasters have been predicting heavy wet snow which takes more time and effort to plow and to remove.


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Thermore Thermal Booster is the smart insulation that responds to this common need: extending the comfort zone by keeping users warm over a wider range of temperatures. Thermore Thermal Booster is a sensational breakthrough in insulation technology, as it works in a totally different way: when the weather gets colder, it provides extra warmth. Independent test labs prove that Thermore Thermal Booster is over 20% warmer at lower temperatures. It's just like having a "heat pack": as the temperature decreases, it gradually increases its warmth up to more than 20%!
However, unlike actual heat packs, heating batteries or phase change materials, its effect does not end: Thermal Booster maintains its higher warmth for as long as the temperature is lower. And of course, if the temperature increases, it automatically re-tunes to the warmer temps, thus keeping you in the comfort zone.
The Thermal Booster smart insulation is available in two different weight variations to perfectly match most temperature range requirements. Also, thanks to Thermore's proprietary anti-fiber migration treatment, the effect is consistent and durable even after repeated washing cycles and heavy duty wear. Thermore is convinced that Thermal Booster is the future of thermal insulation and most likely in 10 years time all garments will provide a higher range of comfort, which is based on the Thermal Booster concept. Wearing a garment with Thermore Thermal Booster will allow users to enjoy outdoor life to the fullest- no matter what weather they may have to face. Enhanced thermal performance will always be a part of the garment and function in a very natural way. No batteries included (or needed!).


Need to learn a new language new ?
i really want to learn a new language over the summer, but am not sure how, or even which one to learn. i really enjoy Asian culture, and chinas' really in the up lately, so maybe Chinese, I've also rely always wanted to learn Latin. what do you think? how should i go about teaching myself?
Why not get a tutor? I work as a tutor for WyzAnt (www.tinyurl.com/TutorMe), and there are quite a few reasonably priced tutors available in virtually any subject! Check it out! By the way, they are always looking for good tutors, so you can earn as you learn, too! Tutor in something you know, and get tutored in something you want to know!
Any language can be learned if you try hard. Online podcasts, apps, language programs, and vacations are all good ways to learn.
As it appears that English is your native tongue, I would recommend that you pursue another Germanic or Latin based language. You will discover many familiar root words in German, French, Italian, and Spanish. Also, I would recommend that you try a language that uses the same alphabet as English. It will make learning much easier. You will more easily be able to read and write the new language and your mouth and tongue will be able to form the sounds and syllables much more readily. Finally, I agree with the others that you will have a better chance at success if you can practice with native speakers of the language you choose to learn. Good luck.
I have had a number of pupils who joined without any English.
Those who learned the language most quickly, and most thoroughly, were the ones who had no help from language teachers, but were forced to muddle through with their classmates' help.
They typically go from zero to fluent in a single term.
Best way is to move to a country that speaks the language of choice and immerse yourself. Speak nothing in your native tongue unless you absolutely have to. Buy a good English to? dictionary and study it.
Most people can learn enough Spanish to carry on a conversation in 3 months.
The only way to rally learn a language is to speak it so you absolutely HAVE to find someone to who speaks the language.
*agreed with rick and artwork -- great suggestions.
I have used 'rosetta stone' software in the past and had some success, but didn't stick with it to the end. It uses a headset microphone to analyze how well you are pronouncing the vocabulary - it says the word, then you repeat until you get it right.
Get a primary tutor book.
First check the usability. How useful will the new language be. Check out how many of your friends ( in clollege / home) speak which language. The more people you can talk with, the more fluent you will get. There are many arian languages. Hindi, bangla, gujrati, marathi, tamil, telegu, kannad, malyalam, asmese, oriya and many many more. Check out the book store. There will be language speaking books. You can also check amazon.com. Who knows! You can learn more than one language also!


Compared to mechanical dock levelers, the Serco's air bag dock leveler is safer and far easier to operate. To raise, simply push a button. There's no back-wrenching pulling of chains, walking down the deck and, best of all, no springs or hold-down to repair or replace.
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It incorporates single push-button control with the standard, high-volume, low-pressure air activation system. Guaranteed with a 5-year activation system warranty.


text:
Running the command:

    [lang=batchfile]
    paket find-package-versions name FAKE -s max 10

will result in:

![alt text](img/paket-find-package-versions.png "paket find-package-versions command")

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


July 2-7, 2019 at McCall Lake Par 3 & Richmond Green.
Enjoy some fresh air and family time!
Free golf will be available to all juniors 6-17 years at McCall Lake Par 3 and Richmond Green, when accompanied by one paying adult (there must be at least one adult per foursome). No coupons allowed and does not apply to special events or tournaments.
And we will be offering "Big Cup Golf" during this week at these courses. Along with our regular hole on each green, we will also have an 8 inch hole you could choose to putt in to! Just another element of fun to the great game of golf. Tee it up and try it out!
We recommend booking your tee time 4 days in advance. Book online or by phoning 403-221-3510.


Many people have helped me over the course of my research, especially Elmer Powell, but I also have to mention Ken Tabachnik, Duane Douglas, Clyde Hubbard, Rick Ponterio and Cory Frampton.
Much of this information was acquired from archives in Mexico and the United States. I have to acknowledge the patience and helpfulness of people in Mexican archives who, when confronted with someone who can speed-read old documents in Spanish but has difficulty in putting together a coherent sentence, even when the subject matter is limited to 'soy estudiante de la papel moneda de Chihuahua' and 'mi averiguación es particular', never failed to go out of their way to be helpful.
On my visit to Mexico in 2008 I was particularly grateful to Profesor Ruben Beltran Acosta and his assistant in the Archivo Histórico Municipal of Chihuahua, and the staff in the state archives of Sonora and Querétaro and in the Hemeroteca Nacional, the Centro de Estudios de Historia de México and the Archivo General de la Nación in Mexico City.
I returned to Mexico in 2010 and need to add Profesor José Alfredo Sánchez Mendoza and his staff at the Biblioteca 'Mauricio Magadeleno' in Zacatecas, the staff in the state archives of San Luis Potosí, Aguascalientes, Guanajuato, Coahuila, Nuevo León, Durango and Colima, and the staff at the Archivo Histórico Municipal de Parral. Parral's archive survived pretty much intact whilst those in the rest of the state of Chihuahua have largely been lost, so it is an invaluable source of information.
I particularly wanted to track down the Memorias de las Instituciones de Crédito published between 1897 and 1912. José Ramón San Cristóbal Larra and his staff at the Biblioteca Miguel Lerdo de Tejada arranged to open the Capilla Rosa in the Palacio Federal, which was closed for renovation, so that I could consult these volumes in magnificent solitude. It would not happen in England.
Special mention also needs to be made of the Benson Latin American Collection in the University of Texas at Austin, which houses the invaluable Lázaro de la Garza papers; the José María Maytorena papers at Claremont College, and the Silvestre Terrazas papers in the Bancroft Library, Berkeley.
Susanne Campbell and the staff at the West Texas Collection at Angelo State University, San Angelo, Texas provided images of postcards to illustrate the Advertisements section. Ramón Lerna Alvidrez gave me the photos of the Banco Mexicano and the Parral and Durango Railroad.
I have made as much use as I can of primary sources but the results are necessarily patchy, among other reasons because it seems that when revolutionaries were not busy printing or restamping money they were busy sacking archives. Often only documentation from the victorious side survives.
Each state had its own Periódico Oficial, the official bulletin for the text of important local and national decrees, statutory notices, judgements and, occasionally, an eclectic range of local and international news, historical episodes, informative articles and homilies. They tried to maintain continuity so whenever a rival faction took over it would publish its own version, but with the obvious disruptions and the lack of newsprint there are unfortunately gaps. In addition different factions sometimes produced competing versions.
States were meant to send a copy to the Bibliotheca Nacional in Mexico City but, apart from the states neighbouring the capital, this stopped between the removal of Huertista governors and the re-establishment of some kind of order under the Carrancistas.
In the footnotes where a reference is given as Periódico Oficial this means the official bulletin of the particular state in question (the provenance should be obvious from the text) unless specifically stated otherwise.
At times Mexico had a vibrant press but during the revolution partiality, official or self-imposed censorship, and (in some areas) lack of paper, meant that, with the exception of Mexico City, newspapers were rare, and one had more chance of learning of the fortunes of the Allies on the Western Front than of any fighting nearer to home.
AGN Archivo General de la Nación, Mexico, D. F.
CONDUMEX Centro de Estudios de Historía de México, Mexico, D. F.
SD Papers U.S. Department of State Papers, National Archives, Washington, D. C.


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text:
/** Section: Functions related to the Golden Cookie Timers */

import { GCTimers } from '../VariablesAndData';

/**
 * This function creates a new Golden Cookie Timer and appends it CM.Disp.GCTimers based on the id of the cookie
 * @param	{object}	cookie	A Golden Cookie object
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  GCTimer.style.height = '96px';
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  GCTimer.style.fontSize = '35px';
  GCTimer.style.cursor = 'pointer';
  GCTimer.style.display = 'block';
  GCTimer.style.pointerEvents = 'none';
  if (Game.mods.cookieMonsterFramework.saveData.cookieMonsterMod.settings.GCTimer === 0)
    GCTimer.style.display = 'none';
  GCTimer.style.left = cookie.l.style.left;
  GCTimer.style.top = cookie.l.style.top;
  GCTimer.onclick = function () {
    cookie.pop();
  };
  GCTimer.onmouseover = function () {
    cookie.l.style.filter = 'brightness(125%) drop-shadow(0px 0px 3px rgba(255,255,255,1))'; // eslint-disable-line no-param-reassign
    cookie.l.style.webkitFilter = 'brightness(125%) drop-shadow(0px 0px 3px rgba(255,255,255,1))'; // eslint-disable-line no-param-reassign
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  GCTimer.onmouseout = function () {
    cookie.l.style.filter = ''; // eslint-disable-line no-param-reassign
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  GCTimers[cookie.id] = GCTimer;
  l('shimmers').appendChild(GCTimer);
}


text:
Games Database PC Racing: Car
Need for Speed - PC
Got packs, screens, info?
Requires: Mouse, Internet Connection, Keyboard
Also for: PS4, Xbox One
Viewed: 3D Combination Genre:
Racing: Car
Media: DVD Arcade origin: No
Developer: Ghost Soft. Co.: Electronic Arts
Publishers: Electronic Arts (GB)
Released: 17 Mar 2016 (GB)
Ratings: PEGI 12+
Accessories: Xbox One controller
All Screens (19) >>
After a two year hiatus, Need for Speed returns. And it's just 'Need for Speed' this time - no fancy subtitles adorn the front of the box. This reflects a back to basics approach that players will find in the game, with the option to play as police stripped out to make way for a purer racing experience.
Developer Ghost Games has taken a novel approach to this entry in the series, introducing a plot for players to make their way through. You arrive in the fictional (but LA-inspired) Ventura Bay and quickly fall in with some friends who run a car modification garage at the heart of Need for Speed's massive open world. It's soon time to choose your first car, and it's worth choosing wisely. This time the game places the emphasis on picking vehicles and then really going to town to customise them until they're in the exact shape you want. You can buy new cars, but they're expensive and your garage will only hold five vehicles altogether, so it's worth choosing carefully. Whether you prefer to drift around every bend or stick hard to the road, you can tune your car to suit your style.
Once you're good to go, you'll start getting calls offering you events to take part in. There are five categories: Speed (straightforward races and solo time trials); Style (gymkhana, a mix of drifting and racing); Crew (all about the drifting; Build (a range of race options built around cars that are customised a certain way) and Outlaw (challenges with police hot on your tail). Each category has its own story, and as you progress you'll ultimately get the chance to take on a real-world racer at the pinnacle of each discipline in a bid to be the best of the best!
News & Editorial
Need for Speed Review
PC PlayStation
Need For Speed 3: Hot Pursuit
Need for Speed: Underground

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Start for Ottobock SE & Co. KGaA
Ottobock SE & Co. KGaA
New legal form for dynamic growth and good future prospects
Ottobock has changed its legal form. Otto Bock HealthCare GmbH became Ottobock SE & Co. KGaA on 3 April 2018. This partnership limited by shares permits the Näder family to maintain its influence over the course of the company going forward, including after a potential IPO – and is the optimal form to support the company's planned growth over the coming decades.
"The governance of the company is being adapted to reflect its size and international presence," Professor Hans Georg Näder explains. He is the chairman of the board, which manages the business of Ottobock SE & Co. KGaA, and the President of Ottobock Holding, which holds 80 percent of the shares in Ottobock SE & Co. KGaA. The remaining 20 percent are held by Swedish private equity firm EQT.
Dr Oliver Scheel has been the CEO of Ottobock since the beginning of 2018. In this role, he leads the managing directors who manage the day-to-day business operations. The co-determined European Supervisory Board convened in October of 2017 and continues its work in the KGaA as before under the leadership of Dr Bernd Bohr.
"Ottobock stands for wearable human bionics. We are positioned for future success. The growth prospects for the company and our 7000 employees around the world are excellent," says Professor Näder with enthusiasm, describing the company's orientation going forward.
Mark C. Schneider
Vice President Investor Relations & Corporate Communications
MarkC.Schneider@ottobock.de


text:
The imperial system in crisis
By Claudio Katz, Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal
Abstract: Imperialism safeguards the exploitation of workers and the subjugation of the periphery, using mechanisms adapted to the transformations undergone by capitalism. That adaptation is an ongoing process at present. US leadership has been undermined by economic deterioration and failed wars. It also lacks the plasticity its British predecessor had for handing over command.
Russia does not participate in the dominant group, but is driving forward the gestation of a non-hegemonic empire, one quite distinct from tsarism and the USSR. China's protagonism is not synonymous with imperial expansion. Its defensive strategies coexist with an incomplete capitalist restoration that has incorporated the accumulation of profits at the expense of the periphery. In other regions contested pre-eminence has given new currency to the status of sub-imperialism.
The centrality of coercion to imperialism is diluted by theses that solely focus on hegemony. The current imperial system diverges from the old rivalries between powers and cannot be clarified through economic criteria alone. Geopolitical confrontations disprove the thesis of a global empire sustained by transnationalised classes and states.
[Note by LINKS: This is a synthesis of a paper presented at the conference on "Imperialism in the new global situation", held in the Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas, Mexico DF, June 6, 2022. View a video of the presentation here. Read the original in Spanish here. Translated by Federico Fuentes with assistance from Richard Fidler.]
Debates about imperialism have reappeared after a winding detour. During the first half of the past century, this concept was widely utilised to characterise bellicose confrontations between great powers. Subsequently, it was identified with exploitation of the periphery by the economies of the centre, until the rise of neoliberalism lessened the conceptual weight of this term.
At the beginning of the new millennium, focus on imperialism took a back seat, with the notion itself falling into disuse. This disinterest coincided with a weakening of critical viewpoints on contemporary society. But the United States invasion of Iraq eroded this complacency and triggered a resurgence of discussions on the mechanisms of international domination. Denunciations of imperialism regained importance and criticisms of US military aggressiveness multiplied.
These objections subsequently took on the substitute notion of hegemony, which gained importance amid studies on the decline of the United States in the face of China's rise. Hegemony was emphasised to assess how the dispute between the world's two major powers was unfolding in the geopolitical, ideological and economic terrain. The coercive feature that distinguishes imperialism from other notions lost its relevance in many reflections on the US-China confrontation.
Just as this replacement notion seemed to prevail — alongside the new centrality given to the notions of multipolarity and hegemonic transition — references to imperialism regained weight due to an unexpected event. This term has reappeared with Russia's invasion of Ukraine, as a means to highlight Moscow's expansionism.
Unique features and adaptations
The Western media frequently use the category of imperialism to contrast the tyrannical policies of the Kremlin or Beijing with the respectful actions of Washington or Brussels. This biased use of the term hinders any understanding of the problem. The logic of imperialism is only understandable if we overcome these crude views and explore the relationship of the concept with its basis in capitalism.
This analytical path has been explored by various Marxist thinkers, who study the contemporary dynamics of imperialism on the basis of mutations that have occurred in the capitalist system. In these approaches, imperialism is seen as a notion that incorporates the international mechanisms of domination used by the enriched minorities to exploit the popular majorities.
Imperialism is the main instrument of this subjection, but it operates not within each country but at the level of inter-state relations and in the dynamics of competition, the use of force and military intervention. It is an essential mechanism for the continuity of capitalism and has been present since the first days of the system, mutating in accordance with the changes within this social regime. Imperialism has never constituted a specific stage or epoch of capitalism. It has always embodied the forms adopted by geopolitical-military supremacy in each era of the system.
Because of this historical variability, today's imperialism differs from its antecedents. Not only is it qualitatively different from pre-capitalist (feudal, tributary or slave) empires, which were based on territorial expansion or control of trade, but it bears little resemblance to the classic imperialism conceptualised by Lenin, when great powers waged war for control of markets and colonies.
Contemporary imperialism also differs from the US-led model of the second half of the 20th century. The world's leading power introduced novel elements of collective coordination and subjugation of partners to ensure the protection of all dominant classes in the face of popular insurgency and the danger of socialism.
In all these various stages, imperialism guaranteed that advanced economies benefited from the use of the resources of the periphery. The coercive devices used by the great powers ensured that the capitalists of the centre captured the wealth of dependent countries. In this way, imperialism ensured the continuity of underdevelopment in relegated parts of the world.
This perpetuation recreated the mechanisms of transfer of value from dominated economies to their dominant peers. Inequality between the two poles of world capitalism was reproduced through various productive, trade and financial modalities.
Mutations and lack of definition
Twenty-first century imperialism must be evaluated in light of the enormous changes that have occurred in contemporary capitalism. For the past 40 years a new pattern of accumulation has prevailed based on low growth in the West and significant expansion in the East linked together by the globalisation of production. Internationalisation of the manufacturing process, subcontracting and value chains underpin this productive model that has been sustained by the information revolution. This development of digital capitalism has led to mass unemployment and to the generalisation of precariousness, insecurity and labor flexibilisation.
This new model operates through financialisation, which introduced credit autonomy for companies, the securitisation of banks, and family management of mortgages and pensions. The growing weight of the financial sector within the current functioning of the economy has, in turn, multiplied the cases of periodic outbreak of deep crises.
Speculative bubbles — which corrode the banking system and lead to increasingly large-scale government bailouts — have accentuated the imbalances of today's capitalism. The system has been greatly affected by the tensions caused by overproduction (which propelled globalisation) and the fracturing of purchasing power (which boosted neoliberalism).
The current scheme, moreover, incubates potential catastrophes of greater scope due to the relentless deterioration of the environment generated by competition for greater profits. The recent pandemic was only a warning in terms of the grave scale of these imbalances. The end of the pandemic has led not to the expected "return to normality", but rather to a scenario of war, inflation and breakdown of global supply chains.
The crisis is beginning to take on new contours and no one knows what direction economic policy will take in the coming period. Alongside renewed state intervention, a dispute over whether to pursue a neo-Keynesian turn or an opposite path of relaunching neoliberalism remains unresolved.
Either of these paths will simply ratify the pre-eminence of the new model of globalised, digital, precarious and financialised capitalism, with its ensuant scale of unmanageable contradictions. This model is as visible as the dramatic magnitude of its imbalances.
Clarity on contemporary capitalism does not extend, however, to the geopolitical or military terrain. Twenty-first century imperialism is marked by an accumulation of uncertainties, lack of definitions and ambivalences that go far beyond its economic foundation. The radical mutations that have taken place in recent decades in this latter sphere have not been extended to other areas. It is this divorce that underpins the enormous complexity of the current imperial framework.
Erosion of imperial leadership
The existence of a dominant bloc led by the United States is the main characteristic of the contemporary imperial system. The world's largest power is the greatest exponent of the new model and the clear manager of the apparatus of international coercion that secures domination by the wealthy. A diagnosis of existing imperialism passes through an evaluation of the United States, which concentrates all the tensions of this apparatus.
The primary contradiction of present-day imperialism lies in the impotence of its conductor. The colossus of the North has seen its leadership eroded as a consequence of the deep crisis affecting its economy. Washington has lost the preponderance it had in the past and its declining manufacturing competitiveness is not offset by its continued financial domination or its significant technological supremacy.
The United States was able to corroborate its advantages compared to other powers during the 2008 crisis. But the major setbacks in Europe and Japan did not lessen the systemic decline of the US economy, nor did it attenuate China's sustained rise. The United States has not been able to contain the geographical reconfiguration of world production towards Asia.
This economic erosion is affecting US foreign policy, which has lost its traditional domestic support. The old homogeneity of the Yankee giant has been shattered by the dramatic political rift confronting the country. The United States is corroded by racial tensions and political-cultural fractures that counterpose the "America First" sentiments of the interior with the globalism of the coastal populations.
This deterioration has had an impact on Pentagon operations, which can no longer count on the support they once enjoyed in the past. The privatisation of war is taking place in a context of growing domestic disapproval of foreign military adventures.
The US economy is not simply facing a reversal of its continued supremacy. The international weight of the US state apparatus and the primacy of its finances contrast with the country's trade and productive decline.
This erosion does not imply that an inexorable and uninterrupted decline will take place. The United States has not managed to restore its old leadership, but it continues to play a dominant role and its imperial future cannot be clarified by applying the historical-determinist criteria postulated by the theory of cyclical rises and declines of empires. The decline of the US economy is synonymous with crisis, but not with terminal collapse at some pre-determined date.
In fact, the power that the United States preserves is based more on its military deployments than on the impact of its economy. For this reason, it is essential to analyse the world's largest power through the imperial lens.
Military failures
Washington has been trying for several decades to regain its leadership through the use of force. The main features of today's imperialism are concentrated in these incursions. The Pentagon manages a network of contractors who enrich themselves through war by recycling the military-industrial apparatus. They retain the same pre-eminence in periods of wartime détente as they do in periods of high conflict.
The US economic model of rearmament is reproduced via increased exports, high prices and permanent displays of firepower. This visibility requires the multiplication of hybrid wars and all kinds of incursions by para-state formations.
With these deadly instruments, the United States has generated Dantesque scenarios of deaths and refugees. It has resorted to hypocritical justifications for humanitarian intervention and a "war against terrorism" to carry out heinous invasions in the "Greater Middle East".
These operations included the gestation of the first jihadist gangs, which later took their own path of attacking their US godfather. The marginal terrorism that these groups fostered never reached the terrible scale of state terrorism that the Pentagon oversees. Washington has gone a long way towards completely pulverising some countries.
But the most striking feature of this destructive model has been its resounding failure. In the past twenty years, the project of US recomposition via military action has failed again and again. The "American century" conceived by neoconservative thinkers was a short-lived fantasy that even the Washington establishment abandoned to follow the advice of more pragmatic and realistic advisers.
Pentagon occupations failed to achieve their expected results and the United States was converted into a superpower that loses wars. Bush, Obama, Trump and, most recently, Biden have failed in all their attempts to use the country's military superiority to induce a revival of the US economy.
This failure has been particularly visible in the Middle East. Washington has used its aggressions to stigmatise the peoples of that region, with images of primitive, authoritarian and violent masses unable to assimilate the wonders of modernity.
This nonsense was spread by the media to cover up for the US attempts to appropriate for itself the world's largest oil reserves. But, after a tumultuous crusade, the United States was humiliated in Afghanistan, withdrew from Iraq, was unable to subdue Iran, failed in its attempts to create puppet governments in Libya and Syria, and has even had to deal with the boomerang effect of the jihadists that now fight against it.
Inflexible framework
The misfortunes faced by the world's largest power will not lead it to abandon external interventionism or to withdraw to its own territory. The US ruling class needs to maintain its imperial action in order to sustain the primacy of the dollar, its control over oil, the business dealings of the military- industrial complex, the stability of Wall Street and the profits of technology companies.
For this reason, all White House occupants have tried new variants of the same counter-offensive. No US president can give up on attempts to reconstruct the country's primacy. All of them have adopted this objective, but never achieved it. They all suffer from the same compulsion to seek out some path towards recovering their weakened leadership.
The United States does not have the plasticity of its British predecessor to hand over global command to a new partner. It does not have the capacity to execute a redeployment that was demonstrated by its transatlantic peer in the previous century. US inflexibility hinders it in adjusting to the current context and accentuates the difficulties it has in exercising leadership of the imperial system.
This rigidity is largely due to the commitments of a power that no longer acts alone. Washington heads a network of international alliances built in the mid-twentieth century to deal with the so-called socialist camp. This network is based on a close association with European alter-imperialism, which carries out its interventions under the aegis of the United States.
The capitalists of the Old Continent defend their own business dealings with autonomous operations in the Middle East, Africa or Eastern Europe, but act in strict harmony with the Pentagon and under a command articulated through NATO. The great empires of the past (England, France) preserve their influence in the old colonies, but all their moves are subject to Washington's veto.
The same subordinate partnership is maintained with the co-empires of Israel, Australia and Canada. They share with their referent custody of the global order and carry out actions in line with the demands of their guardian. They tend to defend the same interests on a regional scale that the United States secures globally.
This articulated global system is a feature that today's imperialism inherited from its post-war precedent. It operates in complete contrast with the model of diversified powers that disputed primacy during the first half of the previous century. The crisis of the hierarchical structure that succeeded this previous model is the critical feature of 21st century imperialism.
A forceful expression of this inconsistency was the fleeting character of the unipolar model that the neoconservative project imagined for a new and prolonged "American century". Instead of this renaissance, a multipolar context emerged, confirming the loss of US supremacy vis-à-vis numerous actors in world geopolitics. Washington's desired predominance has been replaced by a greater dispersion of power, which contrasts with the bipolarity that prevailed during the Cold War and with the failed attempt to impose a unipolar model following the USSR's implosion.
Today's imperialism operates, therefore, around a dominant bloc led by the United States and managed through NATO in close association with Europe and Washington's regional partners. But the Pentagon's failures to exercise its authority have created the current unresolved crisis, which is verified by the emergence of multipolarity.
A non-hegemonic empire in gestation
How can this updated concept of imperialism be applied to powers that are not part of this dominant bloc? This question hovers over the most complex enigmas of the 21st century. It is clear that Russia and China are large rival powers of NATO, which in the existing context are located in a non-hegemonic sphere. Given this differentiated location, can they be said to hold an imperial status?
Clarifying this status has become particularly unavoidable in Russia's case, following the start of the war in Ukraine. For Western liberals, Moscow's imperialism is an obvious fact, one rooted in the authoritarian history of a country that shunned the virtues of modernity to opt for the dark backwardness of the East. Using this tired, old script from the Cold War, they counterpose Russian totalitarianism to the wonders of US democracy.
But it is impossible to clarify the contemporary profile of the Eurasian giant with such absurd assumptions. Russia's potential imperial status must be evaluated in terms of the consolidation of capitalism and the transformation of the old bureaucracy into a new oligarchy of millionaires.
It is evident that the pillars of capitalism have been consolidated in Russia, with the entrenchment of private ownership of the means of production and consequent patterns of profit, competition and exploitation, under a political model at the service of the ruling class. Yeltsin forged a republic of oligarchs and Putin simply curbed the predatory dynamics of that system, without reversing the privileges enjoyed by the newly enriched minority.
Russian capitalism is very vulnerable to the uncontrolled influence maintained by different types of mafias. Informal mechanisms of surplus appropriation also recycle the economic adversities of the old model of compulsive planning. Moreover, the predominant pattern of raw materials exports affects the manufacturing apparatus and reproduces a significant draining of national resources abroad.
On the geopolitical level, Russia is a favourite target of NATO, which has tried to break up the country by means of a large deployment of missiles on its border. But Putin has also stepped up Russian intervention in the post-Soviet sphere and has carried out military actions that go beyond any defensive dynamic and logic of deterrence.
In this context, Russia is not part of the dominant imperialist circuit, but it implements policies of domination in its region that are typical of a non-hegemonic empire in gestation.
Differences with the past
Moscow does not participate within the dominant group of world capitalism. It lacks a significant finance capital sector and has few large international companies. It has specialised in the export of oil and gas, and has consolidated its position as an intermediate economy with few connections with the periphery. It does not obtain significant profits from unequal exchange.
However, with this secondary economic location, Russia exhibits a potentially imperial profile based on its foreign interventions, powerful geopolitical actions and deep tensions with the United States.
This external protagonism has not led to the reconstitution of the old tsarist empire. The differences with that past are as monumental as the qualitative differences with the social regimes of the feudal era.
The asymmetries are equally significant with regards to the USSR. Putin has not reconstituted so-called "Soviet imperialism", an inconsistent category that is structurally incompatible with the non-capitalist character of the model that existed prior to its implosion in 1989. The USSR was led by a ruling bureaucracy that acted in an oppressive manner, but it did not engage in imperialist actions in its conflicts with Yugoslavia, China or Czechoslovakia.
At present, internal colonialism persists, perpetuating inequalities between regions and the primacy of the Great Russian minority. But this oppressive modality does not achieve the scale of the apartheid in South Africa or Palestine. Moreover, the determinant factor for an imperial status is external expansion, which until the Ukrainian war only appeared to be a tendency when it came to Moscow.
The imperialist project is effectively backed by right-wing sectors that promote the business of war, foreign adventures, nationalism and Islamophobic campaigns. But this course is resisted by an internationalised liberal elite and Putin has, for a while, governed by maintaining a balance between both groups.
It should not be forgotten that Russia is also located at the antipodes of a dependent or semi-colonial status. It is a major international player with a strong protagonism abroad, that has modernised its military structure and upheld its position as the world's second largest arms exporter.
Instead of helping its neighbours, Moscow reinforces its own dominant project by, for example, sending troops to Kazakhstan to support a neoliberal government that plunders oil revenues, represses strikes and outlaws the Communist Party.
The impact of Ukraine
The war in Ukraine has introduced a qualitative shift in the dynamics of Russia, and the final results of this incursion will have a drastic impact on the country's geopolitical status. The imperial tendencies that only appeared as embryonic possibilities have taken on a new significance.
Certainly, the US was primarily responsible through its attempts to bring Kyiv into NATO's missile network directed against Moscow and by encouraging the violence of far-right militias in the Donbas. But Putin carried out an inadmissible military action, one that was functional to Western imperialism and that has no justification as a defensive action. The head of the Kremlin showed contempt for Ukrainians, aroused hatred towards the occupier and ignored the widespread aspiration for peaceful solutions. With his incursion, he created a very negative scenario for the emancipatory hopes of the peoples of Europe.
The final outcome of the incursion remains undefined and it is not known whether the effects of sanctions will be felt most in Russia or the West. But the scale of the humanitarian tragedy in terms of deaths and refugees is already huge and is convulsing the entire region. The United States is bent on prolonging the war to push Moscow into the same quagmire that the USSR faced in Afghanistan. That is why it is pushing Kyiv to reject negotiations that could halt hostilities. Washington intends to subordinate Europe to its militaristic agenda through an interminable conflict that would ensure Brussels' financing of NATO. It no longer aspires to incorporate only Ukraine into that military alliance. It is now also pushing for the entry of Finland and Sweden.
In summary: Russia is a capitalist country that, until the incursion into Ukraine, did not have the general features of an imperial aggressor. But Putin's path of geopolitical offensive bolsters that profile and tends toward transforming the empire in gestation into a consolidated empire. The failure of this operation could also lead to a premature neutralisation of the nascent empire.
China's protagonism
China shares with Russia an analogous position within the non-hegemonic conglomerate and faces a similar conflict with the United States. For this reason, the same question arises regarding its current status: is it an imperialist power?
In China's case, it is worth noting the exceptional development it has achieved in recent decades on the basis of socialist foundations, market complements and capitalist parameters. It has established a model that is connected with globalisation but centred on the local retention of surpluses. This combination has allowed for intense local accumulation intertwined with globalisation through reinvestment circuits and important controls on the movement of capital. The economy has steadily expanded, but without the neoliberalism and financialisation that affected its competitors.
China was also hit by the 2008 crisis, which introduced an insurmountable ceiling to the previous model of financed exports to the United States. This "Chinamerica" link became exhausted, revealing the imbalance generated by a trade surplus resolved through gigantic debts. This imbalance led to the current crisis.
The Chinese leadership initially opted for a shift towards local economic activity. But this decoupling did not generate benefits equivalent to those obtained under the previous globalised scheme. The new course accentuated overinvestment, real estate bubbles and a vicious circle of oversaving and overproduction, which forced China to resume its search for external markets through the ambitious New Silk Road project [also known as Belt and Roads Initiative].
This path is giving rise to tensions with China's partners and faces the great limitation of an eventual stagnation of the world economy. It is very difficult to sustain a gigantic international infrastructure plan in a scenario of low global growth.
During the pandemic, China once again exhibited its greater level of efficiency compared with the United States and Europe, with its expeditious mechanisms for containing COVID-19. But the virus emerged from within its territory as a result of the imbalances precipitated by globalisation. Urban overcrowding and lack of controls on food industrialisation illustrate the dramatic consequences of capitalist penetration.
China is currently affected by the war that followed the pandemic. Its economy is highly susceptible to food and energy inflation. Moreover, it has to contend with the obstacles that hinder the functioning of global value chains.
A new location
China has not completed its transition to capitalism. This regime is very present in the country but it does not dominate across the entire economy. There is a significant prevalence of private ownership of large companies, which operate within the rules of profit, competition and exploitation, generating acute imbalances of overproduction. But unlike what happened in Eastern Europe and Russia, the new bourgeois class did not achieve control of the state. This prevents it from establishing the pre-eminence of the capitalist norms that prevail in most of the world.
China is defending itself in the geopolitical arena from US harassment. Obama initiated a sequence of aggressions, which Trump redoubled and Biden reinforced. The Pentagon has erected a naval encirclement while accelerating the gestation of a "NATO of the Pacific", together with Japan, South Korea, Australia and India. It is also moving ahead with the remilitarisation of Taiwan and the attempt to burden Europe with the full cost of the confrontation with Russia in order to concentrate military resources on the struggle with China.
So far Beijing has not deployed actions equivalent to those of its rival. It has strengthened its sovereignty within a limited radius of miles to resist US attempts to internationalise its coastal space. It is shoring up its fisheries, underwater reserves and, above all, the maritime routes it needs to transport its goods.
This defensive reaction is a far cry from Washington's onslaught in the Pacific Ocean. China has not sent battleships to the coasts of New York or California, and its growing military budget still maintains a significant gap with that of the Pentagon. Beijing prioritises economic exhaustion through a strategy that seeks to "tire out the enemy". Moreover, it has avoided forming any network of military alliances comparable to NATO.
China does not, therefore, meet the basic conditions of an imperialist power. Its foreign policy differs greatly from such a profile. It does not dispatch troops abroad, maintains only one military base outside its borders (at a key trading crossroads) and does not get involved in foreign conflicts.
The new power has especially avoided the warmongering path followed by Germany and Japan in the 20th century, following guidelines of geopolitical prudence that were inconceivable in the past. It has profited from globalised forms of production that did not exist in the previous century.
China has also avoided the path followed by Russia and has not taken actions similar to those deployed by Moscow in Syria or Ukraine. For this reason, it is not following the imperial path that Russia has hinted at with increasing intensity.
This international moderation does not place China at the opposite pole of the imperial spectrum. The new power is already far removed from the Global South and has entered the universe of the central economies that accumulate profits at the expense of the periphery. It has left behind the spectrum of dependent nations and has positioned itself above the new group of emerging economies.
Chinese capitalists capture surplus value (through the firms they locate abroad) and profit from the supply of raw materials. The country has already achieved the status of creditor economy, in potential conflict with its debtors in the South. It profits from unequal exchange and absorbs surpluses from underdeveloped economies based on a level of productivity far above the average of its customers.
In summary: China has positioned itself within a non-hegemonic bloc that is far removed from the periphery. But it has not completed its capitalist status and has avoided enacting imperialist policies.
Semi-peripheries and sub-imperialism
Another novelty of the current scenario is the presence of important regional players. They exhibit less weight than the major powers, but have displayed sufficient relevance to require some classification within the imperial order. The weight of these players stems from the unexpected rise of intermediate economies that have consolidated their profile through structures of emerging industrialisation.
This irruption has made the old centre-periphery relationship more complex as a result of a double process of value drain from underdeveloped regions and value retention in the rising semi-peripheries. Several members of the Asian pole, India and Turkey exemplify this new condition in a context of growing bifurcation in the traditional universe of dependent countries. This scenario — more tripolar than binary — is gaining relevance in the contemporary international hierarchy.
Internal differentiation in the old periphery is extremely visible across all continents. The great gulf that separates Brazil and Mexico from Haiti and El Salvador in Latin America is reproduced on the same scale in Europe, Asia and Africa. These fractures have significant internal consequences and complement the underlying process of transformation of the old national bourgeoisies into new local bourgeoisies.
A complex variety of geopolitical statuses can be observed in this spectrum of semi-peripheral economies. In some cases, we have the emergence of an empire in gestation (Russia); in others, the traditional dependency persists (Argentina); and, in certain countries, the features of sub-imperialism have emerged.
This last category is not used to identify weaker variants of the imperial status. This lesser role is occupied by several NATO members (such as Belgium or Spain), who fill a simple role of subordination to US command. Nor does sub-empire allude to the current condition of former empires in decline (such as Portugal, Holland or Austria).
As Marini rightly anticipated, contemporary sub-empires operate as regional powers that maintain a contradictory relationship of association, subordination and tension with the US gendarme. This ambiguity coexists with the use of strong military actions in their disputes with regional competitors. Sub-empires operate on a scale far removed from greater world geopolitics, but with regional attacks that recall their ancient roots of long-standing empires.
Turkey is the main exponent of this modality in the Middle East. It displays significant expansionism, exhibits great duality vis-à-vis Washington, resorts to unpredictable moves, promotes external adventures and engages in an intense competitive battle with Iran and Saudi Arabia.
Specificities of the 21st century
On the basis of all the above elements we can deduce the features of contemporary imperialism. This system presents unique, novel and divergent modalities compared to its two precedents of the past century.
Today's imperialism is a system structured around the dominant role exercised by the United States, in close connection with its alter-imperial partners in Europe and co-imperial extensions in other hemispheres.
This structure incorporates military actions to guarantee the transfer of value from the periphery to the centre, and faces a structural crisis after successive failures by the Pentagon that led to the current multipolar configuration.
Outside this dominant radius are two great powers. While China is expanding its economy with cautious external strategies, Russia is acting with the embryonic modalities of a new empire. Other sub-imperial formations of a much smaller scale dispute pre-eminence in regional scenarios through autonomous actions, but are also linked into the NATO framework.
This renewed Marxist interpretation upgrades the concept of imperialism, integrating the notion of hegemony in order to better understand contemporary geopolitics. It highlights the crisis of US leadership without postulating its inexorable decline or the inevitable emergence of a substitute power (China) or of several aligned replacements (BRICS).
This focus on the concept of imperialism also highlights the continued importance of military coercion, recalling that it has not lost its primacy in the face of the growing incidence of economics, diplomacy or ideology.
Classical views
Debates within Marxism include polemics between a renewed approach (which we have put forward) and the classical view. The latter view proposes using the same characterisation postulated by Lenin at the beginning of the 20th century.
It considers that the validity of this approach is not restricted to the period in which it was formulated, but rather extends to the present day. In the same way that Marx laid the lasting foundations for a characterisation of capitalism, Lenin postulated a thesis that has outlived the times in which it was formulated.
This approach objects to the existence of various models of imperialism, adapted to the successive changes of capitalism. It understands that a single scheme is sufficient to understand the dynamics of the past century.
From this characterisation, it draws an analogy between the current scenario and that which prevailed during World War I, arguing that the same inter-imperial conflict has reappeared today. It argues that Russia and China compete with their peers in the West, with policies similar to those deployed a hundred years ago by the powers that challenged the dominant forces.
In this light, it sees current conflicts as a competition for the spoils of the periphery. The war in Ukraine is seen as an example of this clash and the battle between Kyiv and Moscow is explained by an appetite for iron, gas or wheat resources in the disputed territory. All countries involved in this battle are seen as equal and denounced as camps in an inter-imperial struggle.
But this reasoning loses sight of the great differences between the current context and the past. At the beginning of the 20th century, a plurality of powers with comparable military forces clashed to assert their superiority. The stratified supremacy that the United States currently exercises over its NATO partners did not exist. This predominance confirms that powers no longer act as autonomous fighters. The United States directs both Europe and its extensions in other continents.
Moreover, an imperial system is now operating in the face of a certain variety of non-hegemonic alliances, which only demonstrate imperial tendencies in gestation. The dominant nucleus attacks and the formations in construction defend themselves. Unlike in the past century, there is no battle between equally offensive counterparts.
Lenin's criteria
The classic thesis defines imperialism using guidelines that highlight the predominance of finance capital, monopolies and capital exports. With these parameters, it judges the status of Russia and China positively or negatively by the degree to which they fulfill or depart from those requirements.
Those that answer affirmatively and place Russia in the imperialist camp assess that its economy has expanded significantly, with investments abroad, global corporations and exploitation of the periphery. The same interpretation for China's case emphasises that the world's second largest economy already more than satisfies all the requirements of an imperial power.
Opposing evaluations point out that Russia has not yet joined the club of dominators because it lacks the powerful finance capital required for such a rise. They also note that it has few monopolies or outstanding companies in the ranking of international corporations. The same opinion for China's case points out that the powerful Asian economy has not yet excelled in the export of capital or in the dominance of finance capital.
But these economic classifications drawn from characteristics formulated in 1916 are inadequate for evaluating contemporary imperialism. Lenin only described the features of the capitalism of his time, without using this evaluation to define a map of imperial classification. He thought, for example, that Russia belonged to the club of empires although it did not fulfill all the economic conditions required for such participation. The same was true of Japan, which was not a relevant exporter of capital, nor did it harbour preeminent forms of finance capital.
The current forced application of these requirements leads to countless confusions. There are many countries with powerful finance sectors, overseas investments and large monopolies (such as Switzerland), which do not deploy imperialist policies. In contrast, Russia's own economy operates as if it was a mere semi-periphery in the global ranking, but it engages in the military actions of an empire in gestation. In turn, China meets all the conditions of the classic economic recipe book to be typified as an imperial giant but does not carry out military actions corresponding to that status.
The place of each power in the world economy does not, therefore, clarify its role as an empire. This role is elucidated by evaluating foreign policy, foreign intervention and geopolitical-military actions on the global chessboard. This approach put forward by a renewed Marxism sheds more light on the characteristics of current imperialism than the viewpoint postulated by those who simply update the classical view.
Transnationalism and global empire
Another alternative Marxist approach was put forward in the past decade by the thesis of global empire. This view achieved great popularity during the rise of the World Social Forums, postulating the actuality of a post-imperialist era that had overcome national capitalism and state intermediation. It featured a novel direct counterposition between dominators and dominated resulting from the dissolution of the old centres, the unrestricted mobility of capital and the extinction of the centre-periphery relationship.
In a framework of great euphoria with free trade and banking deregulation, it also underscored the existence of a ruling class amalgamated and intertwined through the transnationalisation of states. It viewed the United States as the incarnation of a globalised empire that transmits its structures and values to the entire planet.
This view has been belied by the current scenario of intense conflicts between major powers. The drastic clash between the United States and China is inexplicable from a point of view that postulates the dissolution of states and consequent disappearance of geopolitical crises between countries differentiated by their national foundations.
The thesis of global empire, moreover, ignores the limits and contradictions of globalisation, forgetting that capital cannot migrate unrestrictedly from one country to another, nor benefit from a free planetary displacement of labour. A continuous sequence of barriers obstructs the constitution of this homogeneous space at a global level.
This approach extrapolated possible, very long-term scenarios to immediate realities by imagining simple and abrupt globalisations. It diluted economy and geopolitics into a single process and ignored the continued protagonism of states, by imagining transnational entanglements between the main ruling classes. It forgot that the functioning of capitalism is based on the legal and coercive structure provided by the different states.
It was even more misguided to liken the pyramidal structure of the contemporary imperial system led by the United States to a global, horizontal empire devoid of national partners. This ignores that the primary power operates as the protector of the global order, but without dissolving its troops into a multinational army. Because of this accumulation of inconsistencies, the vision of a global empire has lost weight in current debates.
Renewed Marxist theory offers the most consistent characterisation of 21st century imperialism. It underlines the pre-eminence of a coercive military apparatus, headed by the United States and cohered through NATO, to ensure domination of the periphery and harass rival non-hegemonic formations such as Russia and China.
Those powers feature only embryonic or limited imperial modalities and carry out primarily defensive actions. The crisis of the imperial system is the critical fact of a period marked by the United States' recurrent inability to recover its weakened primacy.
Claudio Katz is an economist, CONICET researcher, professor at the University of Buenos Aires, and member of Economists of the Left. His web page is lahaine.org/katz


Gail Mackiernan will share her June 2018 birding trip to Mongolia, one of the most interesting countries to the naturalist. Immense grasslands, vast Gobi Desert, wild mountains and surprisingly varied wetlands (plus the lowest population density of any nation) host some of the planet's most wanted birds. The group, ably supported by Mongolian outfitters, recorded about 175 species of birds, with many rarities like Pallas's Sand-grouse and Henderson's Ground-jay. They also scored with mammals, including Przewalski's Horse (the only true wild horse).


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D.C. Air National Guard detachment responds to 4,000th alert since 9/11
By Master Sgt. Jerry Harlan, U.S. Air Force / Published February 06, 2013
Two F-16C Fighting Falcons fly over the nation's capital, protecting the skies over the District of Columbia. (U.S. Air Force photo by Master Sgt. Dennis Young)
1/28/13 -- TYNDALL AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. - The 113th Aerospace Control Alert Detachment of the District of Columbia Air National Guard at Joint Base Andrews passed a major air defense milestone Jan. 9, responding to its 4,000th alert event since Operation Noble Eagle started in September, 2001.
An alert event is designated when the unit's F-16 fighters are alerted to the runway or beyond responding to a possible airborne threat.
"Day, night, rain or shine, our forces are on alert 24/7 protecting the NCR," said Lt. Col. Chris Hardgrave, the 113th ACA Commander. "I am extremely proud of the accomplishments of the men and women of the 113th ACA detachment for hitting this alert milestone. It is a testament to the dedication, professionalism and daily sacrifice of our folks who have done the alert mission day in and day out for over 11 years."
The 113th ACA, protecting the National Capital Region (NCR), is the most active air defense unit in the nation; responding to more alert events than the nation's other ACA units combined. In 2012 alone the unit responded to 509 events and has been conducting steady state alert from Joint Base Andrews since the attacks on 9/11.
"The defense of the NCR is a team effort. We couldn't accomplish our assigned tasking without support from the Eastern Air Defense Sector, Joint Air Defense Operations Center, U.S. Coast Guard assets, 11th Wing, 89th Wing, Air Force District of Washington, and the FAA, just to name a few of our partners here at Joint Base Andrews and around the NCR," said Brig. Gen. Marc Sasseville, the 113th Wing Commander.
Operation Noble Eagle is an ongoing NORAD mission started in response to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks to protect the continental United States from further airborne aggression from inside and outside of U.S. borders. Since then, Continental U.S. NORAD Region fighters have responded to more than 5,000 possible air threats in the United States and have flown more than 62,500 sorties with the support of Airborne Warning and Control System and air-to-air-refueling aircraft.


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Home » Sports News » Flemington clerk to cap off cancer recovery
Flemington clerk to cap off cancer recovery
Former apprentice jockey Leticia Griffin has stared cancer in the face and beaten it.
And on Wednesday, the 25-year-old will cap her stellar recovery by living out a lifelong dream to clerk the course at Flemington – just the third female ever to do so – with a horse who helped her overcome the disease.
Leticia Griffin with Jack. Credit:Photo: Pat Scala
Griffin was just 23 when she was diagnosed with stage three melanoma, in July 2018, after she discovered a lump the size of a golf ball in her underarm, shaking up her life in unimaginable ways.
"For the first 48 hours I wasn't sure whether I was going to die or whether I was going to get through it," she recalled.
"At the start I didn't know what hope I had to be honest.
"There was no primary for me, it was all secondary and I had a lump about the size of a golf ball in my underarm. We looked into that and a biopsy showed it was melanoma and stage three. Stage four is basically incurable so it was pretty intense.
"I wasn't confident [I would survive] but I came across like I was, I think."
Turning all her energy into beating the beast, Griffin – who has worked with the likes of Michelle Payne and Dan O'Sullivan – was forced to part ways with her horses and focus on her own health.
But it was in November 2018 in the midst of treatment when retired picnic champion Freshwater Reset came into her life.
"He wasn't educated at all, he'd come off the track and was sitting in a paddock and they couldn't find a home for him," Griffin recalled.
"I got him through word-of-mouth through a trainer I rode for, Wendy Potter. Her daughter, Kate, is a re-trainer and she actually gifted him to me being in the circumstance I was in.
"It couldn't have come at a better time, we've just gone through so much together already and he kept me getting out of bed every day during the hard times basically.
"I gave him a chance and he gave me a chance and somehow we've made it as a clerk of the course pair."
The 11-year-old gelding Jack, who he's now named, and Griffin have built an inseparable partnership clerking country tracks across Victoria including Ballarat, Geelong, Kyneton and Werribee over the past 12 months.
But the opportunity to do the job at headquarters on Wednesday will make Griffin just the third female to ever do so, after Remi Gray and Janet Williams.
"[Racing Victoria] just rang me to say that we're going to send you to Flemington to get to know the bigger track and meet some new people," she said.
"From being a kid, this was something I wanted to do. I didn't picture it being in my 20s, that's all.
"At this point I just want to continue doing this until I'm ready to come back race riding but as far as health I'm really good. I'm just enjoying it for a bit doing this, but in the future I'll come back and do race riding again."
Griffin also thoroughly enjoys retraining ex-racehorses, five of which she's found new careers for in the past 12 months.
"The re-training, I'm really passionate about finding the off the track thoroughbreds forever homes and seeing them doing great things off the track, so that's definitely going to be a big part of my future," she said.
"But whether it's being a clerk of the course or a jockey, I'm always going to be around [in racing]."
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