No more wars?

Wars in capitalism are not merely a military phenomenon, a dispute over territory between powers. They are also an economic phenomenon.

The arms industry in the United States is a very important component of the capital accumulation process. After all, the country, in addition to being involved in the major armed conflicts of the contemporary world, supplies weapons to other countries involved in the same conflicts or in others.

Producing weapons is producing a very valuable commodity in a world marked by wars, as well as the repression of governments domestically, in order to gain power or to maintain it.

The United States remains the world's largest arms producer, for its own use or to supply its allies. Therefore, the logic of war has both a political and an economic dimension. Waging war is thus doubly worthwhile for the largest imperialist power in the contemporary world.

21st-century imperialism retains the characteristics it had throughout the 20th century, to which new aspects are added. What changes is the decline of the United States as a power: an economic, technological, and political decline, even if it maintains its superiority in the military sphere.

The 21st century will be marked by a confrontation between the North American bloc—which always includes Europe and Japan, both also in decline—and the BRICS, which for the first time brings together the military might of Russia, the economic power of China, the political articulation capacity of Brazil, and a large number of countries that are already part of the BRICS or intend to join.

The 20th century was already a century of inter-imperialist wars, with two blocs of countries vying for territories on the periphery of the system. The United States emerged victorious, but soon after the USSR also acquired the atomic bomb, the Cold War began—a period in which the balance of power was solely military: the two major powers could destroy each other. From then on, a third world war ceased to be possible.

The end of the Cold War, with the collapse of the USSR, gave the United States the illusion that it would become the sole superpower, as England had been for seventy years in the 19th century. But they soon realized that they would have to contend with the BRICS.

This time, the Cold War would not have the same character as the previous one. This time, the balance between the two blocs is not solely on the military front. The BRICS are technologically superior, possess a political pull that the United States no longer has, in addition to the economic power of their members.

At least throughout the first half of the 21st century, this scenario of confrontation between the two blocs will continue. The future of the century will depend on the outcome of this confrontation.

As long as American imperialism maintains its aggressive character, wars will continue to exist, but within the framework of a declining trend in the power of the United States.