The Return of Great-Power Rivalry
From the birth of imperialism to today’s multipolarity
18 July 2026
The global capitalist system has entered a period of rapid reorganization. Donald Trump’s second presidency has left no room for doubt that the era of relatively peaceful relations between the great powers is over. Washington’s tariff war on the entire world, its threats to annex Greenland, its musing about disengaging from NATO and its ill-fated attempt to overthrow the Iranian government have dramatically accelerated the ongoing implosion of the “American empire”—the undisputed imperial hegemony of the United States in the period following WWII.
US hegemony created an era of unprecedented unity among imperialist states, made possible in part by the Cold War with the Soviet Union. American-based institutions largely regulated the system of imperialist domination, and, despite tensions among the leading powers, rivalries were mostly suppressed, including in the period immediately after the counterrevolutions in Eastern Europe from 1989 to 1991. The destruction of the Soviet Union ushered in America’s “unipolar” moment, prompting delusions of perpetual US dominance and even the “End of History.”
This unipolarity disappeared two decades ago with the re-emergence of Russia as an imperialist competitor and, most significantly, the rise of China as a global power. The unequal partnership of the US with the other imperialist states—Germany, France, Italy and the minor European imperialists, along with Japan and the “Anglosphere” imperialists of Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand—initially withstood the disequilibrium in global relations created by the return of “multipolarity.” However, the contradictions of capitalism and the crisis tendencies they generate have continued to erode the material foundations of American dominance, while similar processes have been at work in other imperialist states at varying tempos. Changes in the relative standing of existing powers, alongside the rise of Russia and China, were bound eventually to provoke realignments. While the current leaders of America’s imperialist allies do not seek a complete break from the United States, some (perhaps most) of these countries will be forced to take a more independent stance in order to protect their material interests from a flailing and increasingly volatile American imperialism. The era of open inter-imperialist rivalry has returned.
The international working class is politically unprepared for this moment. The reformist political parties, conservative trade-union bureaucracies and a new wave of left populism attempt to mediate the interests of workers and capitalists, thereby subordinating the former to the latter. Key to this is the class-collaborationist logic of nationalist ideology, which finds expression in the theoretical framework even of the far left. Understanding the current moment and articulating a revolutionary program to overturn capitalism require a careful examination of the history and present trajectory of imperialism.
Part I provides a basic overview of imperialism, from its origins to the end of World War II, a period of pronounced inter-imperialist rivalry involving alternating moments of “peaceful” competition and war. Part II covers the post-WWII era of US dominance and relative suppression of inter-imperialist rivalry. Part III describes the origins and emerging configuration of the imperialist system today and outlines a revolutionary proletarian perspective for initiating the transition to communism.