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Walking a fine line: Germany and the question of imperialism.

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Title: Walking a fine line: Germany and the question of imperialism.
Authors: Koddenbrock, Kai1 (AUTHOR) kai.koddenbrock@uni-bielefeld.de, Voß, Carolin Fiete Norina2 (AUTHOR)
Source: New Political Economy. Nov2025, p1-20. 20p. 1 Illustration.
Subject Terms: *IMPERIALISM, *GOVERNMENT policy, GEOPOLITICS, NAZI Germany, 1933-1945, MILITARISM, WAR, POSTCOLONIALISM
Geographic Terms: GERMANY
Abstract: In a world of increased warfare and unstable accumulation regimes, German investments into large-scale weapons production and its support to the Gaza genocide have brought the question of imperialism back on the table. Lessons from national socialist expansionism and exterminationism have begun to wane, and Germany once again embraces the use of violence more openly. What comes into view when we study a militarizing Germany from the perspective of theories of imperialism? These have been actively forgotten in the academy of the Global North while scholars in the Global South never stopped theorising and experiencing actually existing imperialism. Synthesizing these two traditions to re-center the study of imperialism in IPE and IR we suggest a conceptual focus on war and military violence, domestic state-capital relations, and the extraction of value from the Global South. Empirically, we investigate recent shifts in security and economic policy, Germany's corporate giants Volkswagen and BASF, as well as the quest for mineral supplies from the Global South. The paper concludes that imperialism as an analytical term allows to tackle the geopolitics and geoeconomics of the present in a holistic way and is uniquely placed to deal with a world engulfed in war and crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
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Database: Business Source Index
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Abstract:In a world of increased warfare and unstable accumulation regimes, German investments into large-scale weapons production and its support to the Gaza genocide have brought the question of imperialism back on the table. Lessons from national socialist expansionism and exterminationism have begun to wane, and Germany once again embraces the use of violence more openly. What comes into view when we study a militarizing Germany from the perspective of theories of imperialism? These have been actively forgotten in the academy of the Global North while scholars in the Global South never stopped theorising and experiencing actually existing imperialism. Synthesizing these two traditions to re-center the study of imperialism in IPE and IR we suggest a conceptual focus on war and military violence, domestic state-capital relations, and the extraction of value from the Global South. Empirically, we investigate recent shifts in security and economic policy, Germany's corporate giants Volkswagen and BASF, as well as the quest for mineral supplies from the Global South. The paper concludes that imperialism as an analytical term allows to tackle the geopolitics and geoeconomics of the present in a holistic way and is uniquely placed to deal with a world engulfed in war and crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
ISSN:13563467
DOI:10.1080/13563467.2025.2581605