In 2001 Richard Abritton asked me to write a chapter for Phases of Capitalist Development. The chapter summarises the reasons for employing Marx’s value theory to study modern imperialism, highlighting its economic character. It also marks a transition in which my focus shifted to the empirical study of actually existing inperialism which, I argued, was paving the way to a new era of war. On 9th September 2001 this prediction turned into a tragic reality.

This is a prepublication version of the chapter in the book which should be cited as Freeman, A. 2001 ‘Has the Empire Struck Back?’ in Albritton, R, Makoto Itoh, Richard Westra and Alan Zuege (eds) Phases of Capitalist Development: Booms, Crises, and Globalization, pp195-215. London: McMillan. ISBN 0 33375 316 X