Crisis of the Twenty-First Century

<p>Empire is one of the oldest forms of political organisation and has dominated societies in all parts of the world. Yet despite the emergence of nation-states in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and the apparent end of empire with the breakup of European colonial regimes and the Soviet Union in the twentieth century empire remains powerful in the modern world. The EU's accession policies the United States' War on Terror China's economic developments in Africa among others draw accusations of imperial agendas. Empire is no stranger to crisis but in recent years the effects of global austerity have forced states both powerful and weak to adapt with varying degrees of success and failure. The confusions contradictions and contestations which emerge from imperial crisis point to a vital question - how is Austerity changing Empire and how will this shape tomorrow's world?</p><p>This book was published as a special issue of <em>Global Discourse</em>.</p>