Handout for GH XIII, 'Empires and their Enemies', 13 May 2015

International Affairs, 2019

A great deal of human history is the history of empires. This course examines historical and contemporary empires within a comparative context wider than modern European imperialism. With a regional focus on Eurasia, the class explores key aspects of empire building: military expansion, indirect rule, unequal exchange, environmental impact, ideological hegemony, colonial policies, and ruling strategies towards heterogeneous regions, religions, races, and ethnic groups. Though most empires perished in the twentieth century, we will discuss how, where, and why their political, economic, and cultural legacies persist in the post-colonial period. This course also proposes empire as an important lens for understanding contemporary global powers-which inherit, incorporate, and invent imperial institutions, identities, and strategies. Empire is not a historical relic; it is alive somewhere or about to revive elsewhere. Throughout the course, we will track three contemporary powers that still exert enormous influence on global politics, security, and economy: America, Russia, and China. By revealing the logic behind their decisions and behaviors, and by situating them in comparison to their precedents, counterparts, or competitors-Britain, Japan, and Rome-this course offers students the analytic tools to engage in pressing debates in domestic and international politics. Assignment and Assessment 1. Class Attendance (10%) 2. Class Participation (10%) 3. Five Response Memos (10%) 4. Writing Assignments: Three Essays (70%) a) Essay I (15%): 4-page Topic Overview. b) Essay II (20%): 6-page Comparative Review.

Ethics & International Affairs, 2011

In 2001, Frederick Cooper wrote that 'globalization talk is influential-and deeply misleading-for assuming coherence and direction instead of probing causes and processes'.(1) Burbank and Cooper heed this warning and focus very clearly and ably on the causes and processes of global empire building in this new book. They join a flurry of recent books linking empire, imperialism, and global or world history. Building on the groundbreaking works in this genre (2), this book differentiates itself by beginning in ancient Rome, rather than the 15th or 16th century, and expressly stating that it does not want to explain 'the expansion of Europe' (p. 5). While this may be strictly true, the traditional 'expansion of Europe' has here been replaced with 'the expansion of Eurasia' and the book does not really touch in great detail on the African empires (with which Cooper is undoubtedly familiar), or the pre-Columbian American empires. However, the book is successful in expanding the traditional story to encompass a wider Eurasian scope, drawing, undoubtedly, on Burbank's expertise in Russian history. The authors' unique contribution is that they 'focus instead on how different empires emerged, competed, and forged governing strategies, political ideas, and human affiliations over a long sweep of time' (p. 2).

2016

The version in the Kent Academic Repository may differ from the final published version. Users are advised to check http://kar.kent.ac.uk for the status of the paper. Users should always cite the published version of record.

Review of the international conference "Empires after the First World War: Ideas of Empire, Identity and Citizenship" held at the University of Trento on 19 may, 2016

Eurozine, 2018

This article reviews Jeanne Morefield's "Empire's Without Imperialism: Anglo-American Decline and the Politics of Deflection," and Andrew Fitzmaurice's "Sovereignty, Property, and Empire, 1500-2000." Both books are sterling representatives of the growing field of political theory and empire and ought to be of interest to scholars of political science, international relations, international law, political theory, intellectual history, empire, imperialism, and colonialism.

2010

List of Illustrations vii Preface xi Chapter 1: Imperial Trajectories 1 Chapter 2: Imperial Rule in Rome and China 23 Chapter 3: After Rome: Empire, Christianity, and Islam 61 Chapter 4: Eurasian Connections: The Mongol Empires 93 Chapter 5: Beyond the Mediterranean: Ottoman and Spanish Empires 117 Chapter 6: Oceanic Economies and Colonial Societies: Europe, Asia, and the Americas 149 Chapter 7: Beyond the Steppe: Empire-Building in Russia and China 185 Chapter 8: Empire, Nation, and Citizenship in a Revolutionary Age 219 Chapter 9: Empires across Continents: The United States and Russia 251 Chapter 10: Imperial Repertoires and Myths of Modern Colonialism 287 Chapter 11: Sovereignty and Empire: Nineteenth-Century Europe and Its Near Abroad 331 Chapter 12: War and Revolution in a World of Empires: 1914 to 1945 369 Chapter 13: End of Empire? 413 Chapter 14: Empires, States, and Political Imagination 443 Suggested Reading and Citations 461 Index 481