Christian Fuchs. 2025. World War and World Peace in the Age of Digital Capitalism. London: University of Westminster Press. ISBN 978-1-915445-77-3 (pbk), 978-1-915445-78-0 (pdf), 978-1-915445-79-7 (epub), 978-1-915445-80-3 (mobi). 360 pages. DOI: https://doi.org/10.16997/mpub.13082283
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“This is an excellent, wide-ranging account of thinking about war in the context of new forms of capitalism, providing original analysis of the global dimensions of contemporary war while reflecting on the heritage of sociological theory. It will lead to a rethinking of priorities in social theory.”
— Sylvia Walby, Professor, Department of Law and Criminology, School of Law and Social Sciences, Royal Holloway, University of London
World politics has become highly polarised. We live in times when a new world war has become more likely. The United Nations’ 2024 Pact for the Future expresses concerns about ”the growing risks of a nuclear war which could pose an existential threat to humanity“. Will humanity descend into barbarism and world war, or will we realise the dangers of our global problems, weapons of mass destruction, and the threats posed by a potential new world war, and a climate catastrophe in order to avoid annihilation and create perpetual world peace?
This book deals with violence, world war, and world peace in global digital capitalism. It asks: How do violence and war manifest themselves in global digital capitalism? How do digital capitalism and digital technologies manifest themselves in violence and warfare? What are the prospects for world peace today?
In order to prevent world war and advance world peace, we need a better understanding of war and violence and of their contexts and causes. We need to ask what war is, what violence is, what war and peace look like today and how they have changed in the 21st century. The changes of capitalism have shaped violence and warfare. This book addresses these tasks. It provides possible answers to the questions just posed.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction: War, Peace and Digital Capitalism
2. On Violence
3. On Digital Violence
4. On Digital War
5. On Digital Capitalism
6. On Global Capitalism
7. On Global (Digital) Capitalism’s Political Economy: The Economic Dimension
8. On Global (Digital) Capitalism’s Political Economy: The Political and Military Dimension
9. World Peace
10. The United Nations, Human Rights, and World Peace
11. World Peace and Democratic (Digital) Socialism
12. Conclusion: World War and World Peace in the Age of Digital Capitalism
Postface: The World in the Age of Trump 2.0
Notes
References
Index