New Imperialists : Ideologies of Empire

188 The New Imperialists
domestic state apparatus. Governmental monetary and fiscal policies
become subject to continual “votes of confidence” by the international
money markets. With no restrictions on short-term capital flows it
becomes increasingly difficult for states to pursue domestic policies
aimed at fostering national accumulation through monetary or exchange
controls. Instead, states are required to fulfill the function assigned to
them as part of the international circuit of capital. If they don’t, they face
the risk of capital flight and currency collapse.
The internationalization of state functions has accompanied this
internationalization of capital. 64 In the era of neoliberalism the domestic
state is more integrated into the maintenance of the international circulation
of capital, a process that shapes its domestic economic policies.
Those sectors of the domestic state apparatus that are concerned with
internationalization have become increasingly autonomous in their
decision-making ability and further removed from any national democratic
control. 65
In current debates around imperialism and empire, the relationship
between states is often reduced conceptually to competing viewpoints
emphasizing either interdependence or rivalry. Such a dichotomy, however,
does not adequately capture the contradictory forces at play within
the global system, and it is more accurate to understand the presence of
dual tendencies towards unity and rivalry between imperialist powers. 66
Capital is organized territorially at the level of the nation-state (and
through regional trading blocs), yet simultaneously its reach is global and
there is a common interest between different capital blocs in maintaining
the stability of the system as a whole.
The rhetoric of “failed states” is thus the natural political corollary of
neoliberalism. In this regard, Deepak Lal presents a striking example of
how the logic of the system generates an irrational, ahistorical ideology.
Following the standard approach to free trade and the notion of
factor-endowment as being the prime determinant of a country’s trade
specialization, Lal argues that the reason regions such as Africa and the
Middle East have so many “failed states” is because they have been
endowed with natural resources that provide an irresistible urge to the
“predatory” instincts of state elites. In other words, the reason for the
mass immiseration of the population of these regions is the vast
resources of free wealth with which they have been blessed.
At one level, Lal’s argument is partially correct. Mass pauperization of