Obsolescent Capitalism

'Globalization is just another word for US dominance' - Henry Kissinger

Capitalism is going senile. Its ambition is now restricted to maintaining the wealth of the wealthy in the world, while the poor, condemned to remain out of the loop, are increasingly demonized as the enemy.

This is the theme of Samir Amin's major new book, in which the celebrated analyst presents a synoptic view of capitalism's future.

He depicts a world in which NATO and socalled coalitions of the willing have taken over the role of the United Nations, in which US hegemony is more or less complete, in which millions are condemned to die in order to preserve the social order of the US, Europe and Japan.

Samir Amin's analyses of the Gulf War, the wars in former Yugoslavia and the war in Central Asia reveal the scope of US strategic aims. He explains why Macdonald's hamburgers need McDonnell-Douglas's F-16s, arguing that the political and military dimension of US dominance is as significant as US economic preponderance in determining the future of capitalist development - with the recent US invasion and occupation of Iraq being a confirmation of Amin's prescient thesis.

Table of Contents

1. The Political Economy of the 20th Century
2. The Tools of Analysis and Action
3. The Redeployment of Capitalism
4. The New Triad Imperialism
5. The Miltarisation of the New Collective Imperialism
6. Obsolescent Capitalism and the New World Disorder
7. Basic Requirements for a non-American 21st Century

About the Author:

Samir Amin was born in Egypt in 1931 and pursued his higher education in Paris in the fields of politics, statistics and economics. He has a worldwide reputation as one of the foremost radical thinkers of our generation on issues arising out of the changing nature of capitalism, North-South relations, and development theory. Among his many institutional roles, he has been Director of IDEP (the United Nations African Institute for Planning) from 1970 to 1980; the Director of the Third World Forum in Dakar, Senegal; and a co-founder of the World Forum for Alternatives.

He is the author of numerous books in French and Arabic, many of which have been translated into a large number of other languages, including a dozen or more in English. His most famous works are Accumulation on a World Scale and Unequal Development. Among his recent books in English are Re-reading the Post-War World: An Intellectual Itinerary (1994) and Empire of Chaos (1993).

His previous titles in English include:

The Arab Nation: Nationalism and Class Struggle (1978)
The Arab Economy Today (1982)
Eurocentrism (1989)
Maldevelopment: Anatomy of a Global Failure (1990)
Delinking: Towards a Polycentric World (1990)
The Empire of Chaos (1992)
Re-reading the Postwar Period: An Intellectual Itinerary (1994)
Capitalism in the Age of Globalization: The Management of Contemporary Society (1997)
Specters of Capitalism: A Critique of Current International Fashions (1998)