Are classical Marxist theories of imperialism still useful in understanding the ‘neo-imperial turn’ in US foreign policy?

Please use the link https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B5G2Zb5Ll5JEcjRYNngwSFprbFU&usp=sharing to find the additional files: 2 essay, one example(the format is same,but the content is not relevant)

11) The Neo-Imperial Turn

1) Are classical Marxist theories of imperialism still useful in understanding the ‘neo-imperial turn’ in US foreign policy?
2) How convincing is an interpretation of the current geopolitical moment in terms of the (Neo-)realist strategic vocabulary of the balance-of-power (i.e., uni-, bi-, or multi-polarity?
3) Where are we today in terms of a critical understanding of the current geopolitical conjuncture – ‘hegemony’, ‘inter-imperial rivalry’, ‘super-imperialism’, ‘empire’ or non of them?
4) Whatever happened to ‘globalisation’? Discuss!
5) Is the US today an empire?

Presentations and Analytical Interventions

We will decide in the first session which form of oral student participation we will adopt. This depends on student numbers and your own personal views. In smaller seminars, ‘presentations’ make sense, whereas ‘analytical interventions’ tend to work better in larger classes.

Presentations are supposed to last about 20 minutes for single presenters and 15 minutes each for two presenters. Presentations should tie the core readings of that particular week to the study questions. A 2-page hand-out that summarises in bullet-point form the key points of the presentation (and any other supplementary material, like maps, statistics, graphs, extracts from primary sources like speeches, letters, and official documents) should be circulated to course participants at the start of each presentation.

Each presentation should be organised according to the following guidelines:

 A short and succinct summary of the key argument of each core reading
 Answers to one or several study questions in light of these core arguments
 Critical reflection and analyses of these core arguments (also in the light of additional literature consulted). What are the key issues raised in the readings? What kinds of questions do they raise for further exploration in the seminar? What are my answers and conclusions?

Presentations, if not handled well, are often – even for Year 3 students – too long, and over-relying on a summary of the text. As an alternative (and in seminars with more than 20 students), we can use ‘analytical interventions’ instead.

This means that presenters are expected to focus in their talk exclusively on 3 critical comments they wish to make in relation to the specific texts assigned for that week. They should NOT present a summary of the readings and the presentation should last no longer than 10 minutes per presenter (but can be less, as long as the three comments are precise and emerge from your critical assessment of the texts). You can use the study questions on SD to guide your readings.

The purpose of these ‘analytical interventions’ is that we zero in on some central analytical issues to better structure the subsequent discussion. This also presupposes that all students should have read the texts to take part in the discussion.

Template for ‘Analytical Intervention’

If we adopt ‘analytical interventions’ for the module, presenters should use the following as a template that should be distributed in class.

Title :
Presenter :
Comments on ________________________________ (Name of the Author discussed)
Outline of Intervention
 Make sure to avoid any summary of the text
 Be short and precise. The presentation should last 10 min MAXIMUM.
 Your comments should be based on a critical assessment of the text. Highlight either an interesting contribution or a problematic aspect of the text. It is crucial that for each comment you position yourself in relation to the authors compared
 Organise your comments around a comparison with other texts.
 The main argument section is only to be used if there if a wider argument that YOU wish to make regarding your three comments. For example, if your comments all have wider implications you can propose a larger thesis that you will demonstrate through your three points.
 Distribute your template as a HANDOUT (You can send this to me prior to the seminar so that I can bring multiple print-outs along to class for circulation). It is important that people have something visual to follow your presentation.

Main Argument (optional):

Comment # 1

Comparison with :

Comment # 2

Comparison with :

Comment # 3

Comparison with :

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