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this post was submitted on 03 Jun 2026
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So Russia with more finance capital and less commodities trade would be imperialist, but the way it is, they aren't?
I think I get what you're saying now. But it seems so arbitrary. Why should I give a shit who's imperialist by this specific definition? It would basically make 0% difference to how much Russia is a problem for the world
The problem is that the entire world is already divided up between the imperialist powers. Rising capitalist powers cannot simply take their imperialist share, because there's nowhere to gobble up. This causes conflict between imperialist powers, like the schism rising between the US as the world's imperial hegemon and core imperialist countries like the UK, France, and Germany. The important bit is that Russia is playing a progressive role against imperialism.
The definition of imperialism is not arbitrary, it describes a system that results in immense plunder and underdevelopment of the global south. The west has its riches off the backs of the global south, to this day. Russia does not. If Russia was to join NATO, join the EU, transition to a more imperialist economy, etc then it would go from playing a progressive role against imperialism to playing an actively imperialist role.
Imperialism is not arbitrary. It's the largest global obstacle to human progress, and the advance of socialism.
Hmm OK. I don't think you really addressed my question but it's fine. Everyone's imperialist. Except Russia of course, famously progressive Russia.
Anyway, thanks for explaining what you meant
I think I answered pretty well, the US and EU are the core imperialist countries, the global south is largely imperialized. Most countries aren't imperialist.
Would Russia be imperialist if everything was the same except they had more finance capital and less commodities trade?
That's certainly a big if, but one of the important bits is that they are largely kept out of the ability to imperialize the world as it's already divided amongst the western powers. As Russia develops, it will likely see that same saturation and development of finance capital domestically, but unlike the west, it won't have the ability to expand, and will more likely lead to crisis. If the west severely weakens before then, there's a good chance it would indeed become imperialist, as imperialism isn't a policy choice but the natural evolution of capitalist development. However, this is on a world scale, not merely at the level of an individual country.
Ok thanks.
Your definition seems a little cherry picky. Ignoring the obvious role of hard power and over-focusing on capital seems like a mistake. But I don't know enough anyway. Wiki's definition makes more sense to me
Hard power is used to maintain imperialism. The reason the export of capital is important is that this is what allows imperialist countries to siphon all of the wealth from the global south, vs. just selling them things.
Kicking someone out is not "extending power over foreign nations." That is "resisting foreign nations trying to extend power over you."
You're being ridiculous and clearly not taking the definition as intended. Your definition is the problem here
It's absolutely extending your power over a foreign nation. Resistance to domination is the enforcement of your own will over that of others. Wiki's definition is intentionally vague to the point of being worthless, while the historical analysis of imperialism as originated with theorists like Hobson and extended by Lenin, Nkrumah, and Cheng Enfu describes an actual system, its material causes and mechanisms, and describes why it exists and how to end it. The wiki definition is like defining capitalism as "trade" and saying Marx was being ridiculous by analyzing it further.
Here's a good summary of imperialism. Treating imperialism like a vibe, and not like a material process, means we are incapable of learning how to stop it.
"Extending" is the key word here. You aren't extending any power if it's your own nation, it would be the other party who did that.
Anyway, thanks for the link, I'll check it out!
Extension is a relative term. Burkina Faso is extending its own influence to that of France by kicking them out. Every action has a reaction, in regaining their sovereignty they have reduced France's. This is a good thing, but if we are being technical, it counts as imperialism according to Wikipedia. This is obviously an absurd statement, but that's the point, Wikipedia's definition isn't actually a technical one, and instead is trying to describe a gut feeling more than a material process with concrete characteristics and motions.
And no problem!
I feel like you should have just said ‘screw it’ and vulgarly defined imperialism as a parasitic relationship.
To keep it as mindnumbingly simple as possible, imperialism looks (more or less) like this:
Not this:
I tend to think being consistent helps a lot.