The modern globalised world is composed of two universal structures, the capitalist world-market and the international states-system. The fundamental question for understanding this globalised condition is why these two structures, capital and the international, exist together, forming a single system that encompasses the entire world.

This book answers that question by drawing on dialectical theory to explore the relation between economic value and political sovereignty. Combining economics, politics, international relations and philosophy, it transcends disciplinary boundaries to offer the first theoretical account of the modern world-system as a whole.