April 5 - 13, 2013 will mark the ten year anniversary of the beginning and end of "Battle of Baghdad," when U.S. troops initially wrested power over the city from Iraqi forces. In the months and years following the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, a host of essays and books--some celebratory, many critical--interrogated the ramifications America's "new imperialism" for the global order of things. Within the discipline of geography, three books initiated a strong critical salvos against America's wars that have resonated far beyond the boundaries of the discipline: Neil Smith's American Empire (2002), David Harvey's The New Imperialism (2003), and Derek Gregory's The Colonial Present (2004).

Much has changed since those seminal books were published in the wake of the Iraq invasion , not only in terms of the composition of wars themselves, but also "outside" the formal purview of those wars--namely, the lasting economic stagnation and mounting ecological crises, particularly climate change. In The New Imperialism, Harvey made the compelling argument that it was impossible to understand the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq outside of their political-economic pre-/contexts, thus underscoring the imperial nature of America's war aims. At that time, Harvey argued that America's imperial aim in Iraq was partially motivated by the goal to control the "oil spigot" that was fueling rising economies (namely China) outside of the United States; i.e., by controlling the oil, one controls the economic engine. Does this framing of imperialism still hold? And, in retrospect, did it ever hold?

This session has two intertwined aims whose co-constitution becomes evident when approaching each from a perspective informed by the material histories of the projection of US military power:

First, to address the question of how the disposition of American imperialism has changed in light the financial and climate crises, the failed wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the revolutions in the Middle East. How are we to determine the  extent to which these crises have been exacerbated  (or perhaps ameliorated?) by the aims and changing disposition of American imperialism?

Second, to critically interrogate the emerging technologies and knowledge regimes that have been brought into sharp relief in light of the uncertainty provoked by these crises; e.g., climate futures prediction, dynamic social network analysis, global financial arbitrage strategies, new regimes of financial measurement, algorithmic warfare, novel commodification regimes, social prediction modeling, and the heightening use of image-based statistical analysis.

We are interested in examining the nature and character of American imperialism through its constituent elements. We want to ask whether "imperialism" is still an adequate or useful concept in light of the apparent waning of the American empire and the dispersion of the techniques of empire far beyond its former (formal) institutional contexts.It is our belief that the interconnected problems of ecological calamity, financialization, and war have not yet been adequately posed in relation to the imperialism thesis, let alone "solved." We invite papers to participate, with possible themes that may include but are not limited to:

-- Is "imperialism" still an appropriate and adequate analytic concept?
-- How are contemporary strategic changes in American statecraft both the condition and consequence of previous rounds of imperial (mis)adventure?
-- The interrelation of finance and imperialism
-- The effects of climate change (or environmental degradation more expansively) on American imperialist strategy and tactics
-- The effects of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq on American imperialism
-- The effects of the Arab spring on American imperialism
-- The effects of the financial crisis on American imperialism
-- The changing nature of warfare in the global south
-- New "climate wars"
-- The contemporary status of postcolonial theory and Orientalism in light new US imperial strategies
-- The use of new predictive technologies in the maintenance of American power
-- Tensions between different sectors of the American Imperialist class

Interested presenters should propose a title and abstract, and send along with contact information and institutional affiliations to both organizers no later than October 10, 2012.

"The hope that earthly horror does not possess the last word is, to be sure, a non-scientific wish."  Max Horkheimer

"No one likes armed missionaries." Maximilien Robespierre