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Updated: Oct 9, 2009

When Empire Meets Nationalism:
Power Politics in the U.S. and Russia

Didier Chaudet and Florent Parmentier, both at Sciences Po, France and Benoît Pélopidas, University of Geneva, Switzerland and Monterey Institute of International Studies, USA

This innovative study presents an in-depth political and sociological analysis of the internal power politics and imperial forms developed by the Russian neo-eurasianists and the neo-conservatives in the United States. It traces the growth of nationalism and the concept of "Empire" in relation to the ideologies and foreign policy of both Russia and the USA.

Contents

Introduction; [Read the Introduction]

Part I The Apostles of the Empire: Intellectual Genealogies: Neoconservatives, old and new; From Eurasianism to neo-Eurasianism, nostalgia for the Empire.

Part II Imperial Calling and Nationalism: Anatomy of the Empire: imperial nationalism?; American history through the neoconservative looking glass: imperial calling derived from nationalism; The Empire, neo-Eurasianists and Russian nationalism.

Part III Geopolitics of Imperial Invocations: Between Cynicism, Ideology and Incoherence: Islam; Turkey and central Asia; The Middle East;

Conclusion: the impossible Empire of ressentiment; Afterword: changing people, continuing patterns?; Selective and thematic bibliography: Index.

Reader Comments

"The authors combine adroitly history and theory to propose a framework in which to put into perspective the uncertain world that unexpectedly emerged as the Cold War ended. Their motto could be: who doesn't understand the past cannot imagine the future."
— Dick Howard, Stony Brook University, USA

"The authors talk in a novel way about nationalism and power politics in the contemporary world. Readers will benefit from a greater understanding of how material forces and ideas evoke the rehabilitation of imperial strategy."
— Jan Zielonka, St Antony's College, University of Oxford, UK

"This important and innovative analysis of US and Russian foreign policy, particularly as it impacts the Middle East, will be of great use to both academics and policy makers."
— Stephen Zunes, University of San Francisco, USA

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