World political science regards world politics as an integrated whole, aiming to study the evolution of the nature and basic order of world politics. Its research approach is to examine the common factors and forces that shape the world political landscape and world order, as well as trigger their major changes. World political theories attempt to explain the main factors and mechanisms of order transformation from three dimensions: fundamental driving forces, direct driving forces, and operational mechanisms.
The fundamental driving forces of world politics include technological revolutions, struggles for recognition, capital and the world market, etc. These fundamental driving forces give rise to the direct driving forces of world politics—the ebb and flow of world political thoughts and the changes in the landscape of world political forces. The world political landscape shapes the world political order through such operational mechanisms as power coercion, learning and internalization, and political compromise. Eventually, through domestic and international political struggles, diverse concrete forms of basic international order and national institutions come into being.
To promote the research and academic exchanges of world political science, World Politics Research Center of Chenghai Institute of Global Development and Security has launched a series of publications titled World Politics Briefing. The Briefing is intended to present readers with academic masterpieces closely related to the research agenda of world political science, including monographs and papers published by scholars both at home and abroad in recent years. It is issued on a monthly basis, with each issue introducing the main contents of three academic achievements. The Briefing is for academic research purposes only, and the contents of the compiled works do not represent the views of this Center.
The theme of Isuue 6 is Imperialism. Three papers are selected for studies:
"Revisiting Lenin's Imperialism: The Highest Stae of Capitalism: The Five Core Features of Imperialism Remains Relevant" by Huang Renwei. This paper argues that to understand Leninism, one must read Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism. To reject Leninism is first and foremost to reject this work. All of its "five core features" have been fully verified today; not a single one has become obsolete. First, monopoly organizations play a decisive role in economic life. Monopoly organizations are monopoly capital; that is to say, monopoly capital determines the entirety of economic life. Second, bank capital merges with industrial capital, giving rise to financial capital and financial oligarchs. Third, capital export is of great significance. Fourth, international monopoly alliances of capitalists that carve up the world have emerged, and the globe is divided up by these international monopoly alliances. Fifth, the largest capitalist powers have completed the territorial division of the world, and the constant "re‑division of the world" constitutes the root cause of imperialist wars. Lenin revealed the "three contradictions": the contradiction between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie, the contradiction between imperialism and oppressed nations/States, and the contradiction among imperialist powers. These have evolved into three new contradictions: between the hegemonic power and other countries of the world, between the developed Western economies and the Global South, and between contemporary capitalism and socialism. China's peaceful rise has accelerated, strengthened, and expanded its influence amid these three new contradictions, accelerating the decline of imperialism — this is the fundamental reason why the United States is concentrating its efforts to contain China. The long-term coexistence and struggle between socialism and imperialism constitute the very essence of the strategic competition and stalemate between China and the United States. To study China-US relations, clarify the structural contradictions between them, recognize the long-term nature of their strategic stalemate, and build confidence in the inevitable victory of socialism with Chinese characteristics, one cannot do without Lenin's Imperialism — acting as both a "microscope" and a "telescope".
"The Differential Logic and Reshaping of the Concept of 'Imperialism'" by Wang Cungang and Liang Daitong. From the perspectives of conceptual history and theoretical analysis, this article systematically discusses the semantic evolution, internal tensions, and the necessity of contemporary reshaping of the concept of "imperialism" in international relations studies. Based on a systematic analysis of the historical evolution, theoretical divergences and real‑world challenges of the concept of "imperialism", the paper proposes a path for its conceptual reshaping from the perspective of differential logic. The authors argue that only by fully grasping the multilayered structure and contested nature of the concept can we endow "imperialism" with new theoretical vitality in the context of contemporary international politics, enabling it to serve as an important analytical tool for interpreting changes in global power relations. Such reshaping is not merely a theoretical renewal; it also reflects the academic community's response to the profound transformations in world politics.
"Colonialism versus Imperialism" by Barbara Arneil points out that contemporary scholars generally hold that colonialism and imperialism are difficult or even impossible to distinguish, but the author argues that they can and should be distinguished, even though they overlap and intersect both historically and conceptually. In the paper, the author first defines colonialism and imperialism, then points out their key differences. Subsequently, the author sorts out the development of imperialism from the 19th century to the early 20th century and the history of the complete confusion between these two concepts after World War II. Finally, the author analyzes the theoretical and practical importance of distinguishing colonialism from imperialism.