The Imperialist Question: A Sociological Approach

Abstract: This article provides a conceptual background to the general theme of this Special Issue ‘On Imperialism in the Middle East’. First, we posit that the concept of imperialism can be understood as a sociological process, through an approach that centres the primacy of politics vis-à-vis accounts that sever theory and praxis via empiricism. In probing this issue, the article shows how dominant academic narratives explaining wars in the region disarticulate them from history. Second, we show that wars, waste, and militarism—also termed as accumulation by waste—are the predominant activities of the US-led imperialist age, historically unleashed on the South of the world. Consequently, we end discussing how the study of US-led imperialism becomes the focus around which each article in this issue recentres its analytical contribution.