Uneven and combined development and the Anglo-German prelude to World War I1
| DOI | 10.1177/1354066110391309 |
| Date | 01 June 2012 |
| Published date | 01 June 2012 |
Article
European Journal of
International Relations
18(2) 345–368
© The Author(s) 2010
Reprints and permissions: sagepub.
co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav
DOI: 10.1177/1354066110391309
ejt.sagepub.com
E
JR
I
Corresponding author:
Jeremy Green, York University – Political Science, S672 Ross Building 4700 Keele Street, Toronto, Ontario
M3J1P3, Canada.
Email: ldxjg1@yorku.ca
Uneven and combined
development and the
Anglo-German prelude
to World War I1
Jeremy Green
York University, Canada
Abstract
This article attempts to situate the approach to World War I within the context of
the uneven and combined development of 19th-century European capitalism. Through
a comparative analysis of German and British development within the context of the
epochal transition from feudalism to capitalism, the article proposes that existing historical
materialist and Realist understandings of the roots of World War 1 are inadequate.
Realist analyses, stressing the primacy of ‘geopolitics’, fail to provide a convincing
explanation of the precise origins of German bellicosity. Instead they assume that
expansionist German behaviour was an inevitable consequence of systemic anarchy.
Historical mat erialist accounts, preferring a sociological explanation, overstate the
importance of systemic capitalist crisis and the European-wide escalation of class
struggle for understanding the genesis of the war. Utilizing Trotsky’s concept of uneven
and combined development, I contend, enables a more comprehensive understanding of
the origins of the conflict.
Keywords
capitalism, historical materialism, interstate rivalry, Realism, uneven and combined
development, World War I
Introduction
In recent years a burgeoning literature has emerged regarding the application of Leon
Trotsky’s concept of ‘uneven and combined development’ (U&CD) to the discipline of
International Relations. Faced with the question of why Russian development had
skewed so markedly from the uniform trajectory of capitalist development that Marx had
anticipated, Trotsky turned to U&CD as a way of understanding the singularity of the
346 European Journal of International Relations 18(2)
Russian experience.2 Building from Justin Rosenberg’s (1996, 2006) astute extension of
the explanatory parameters of the concept, scholars have attempted to utilize Trotsky’s
ideas in order to overcome the perceived inability of classical social theory to encompass
a dynamic concept of the ‘international’ within its explanatory scope. By broadening the
reach of Trotsky’s original use of the concept, Rosenberg (2006) has sought to establish
U&CD as a trans-historic property of human social development.
International Relations scholarship has been hamstrung by a long-standing level-of-
analysis problematic (Singer, 1961). Neo-Realist scholars have conjured the dominant
theorization of the ‘international’,3 but have achieved their focus by trivializing the influ-
ence of domestic political processes upon global politics. Historical materialist accounts,
by contrast, have stressed the importance of social forces, engendered by production
relations, as key determinants of world politics. Yet they have so far failed to adequately
integrate interstate dynamics within critical theories of the international relations of
capitalist modernity.4 Consequently, Rosenberg and others have called for scholars to
overcome the dichotomy between the national and the international in a manner that
challenges the Realist reification of international relations.
By positing U&CD as the ontological basis of the ‘international’, suggests Rosenberg
(2006: 312), we can overcome both the ahistorical reification of international relations as
a distinct social realm governed by a timeless law of anarchy (neo-Realism), and the
crude domestic reductionism that eschews the significance of Realpolitik (classical
social theory). Rosenberg hopes that by doing so we can establish the basis for a properly
historical and holistic analysis of the full spectrum of international relations, one that
captures the connectivity between societal and inter-societal dynamics.
Despite the substantial amount of theoretical debate that has occurred regarding
Trotsky’s ideas and their application to IR (Allinson and Anievas, 2009; Ashman, 2009;
Callinicos and Rosenberg, 2008; Rosenberg, 2006), there has been little application of
the concept to comparative inquiry. Although U&CD has been offered as an alternative
to Realist analyses of international relations, it has yet to be tested against alternative
historical materialist approaches attempting to solve similar problems. From a historical
materialist perspective, the ‘World Systems Approach’ (WSA) represents one of the most
sophisticated attempts to offer a comprehensive account of change and continuity in IR.
In particular, Giovanni Arrighi and Beverly Silver (1999: 1–37) have attempted to refine
WSA by taking into consideration the mutually constitutive relationship between social
forces, states and the world capitalist system.
The dearth of empirical analysis informed by theoretical considerations of U&CD has
meant that the interstices between U&CD as a conceptual abstraction and historically
specific social force strategies have so far remained unexplored. With this in mind, there-
fore, my intention here is to explore empirically the analytical potential of U&CD as an
alternative to existing frameworks of analysis within IR. This article will begin with a
critical engagement with Beverly Silver’s (2003) Forces of Labour: Workers’ Movements
and Globalization since 1870. Particular attention will be paid to her treatment of the
relationship between pre-war European labour movements, the Great Depression as a
global crisis of capitalism and the outbreak of World War I.
The argument will then move to an investigation of the pre-war period, focusing upon
British and German labour movements within the context of capitalist development.
To continue reading
Request your trial