The nation-state is a fairly recent historical phenomenon. Human history over the past two to four millennia has been dominated by empires, and the legacies of these empires continues to shape the contemporary world in ways that are not always recognised or fully understood. Much research and writing about European colonial empires has focused on relations between them and their colonies. This book examines the phenomenon of empire from a different perspective. It explores the imprint that imperial institutions, organisational principles, practices, and logics have left on the modern world. It shows that many features of the contemporary world - modern armies, multiculturalism, globalised finance, modern city-states, the United Nations - have been profoundly shaped by past empires. It also applies insights about the impact of past empires to contemporary politics and considers the long-term institutional legacies of the American 'empire'.

‘This illuminating book examines assemblages of imperial institutions and practices that combine with those of the modern nation-state. Uniformly intriguing and innovative essays illustrate that contemporary world politics is a patchwork of the old and the new. It thus offers imaginative vistas that enrich our sparse theoretical models and open up new areas for research.’

Peter J. Katzenstein - Walter S. Carpenter, Jr Professor of International Studies, Cornell University

‘The ghosts of dead empires stalk the lands of their successor nations in the form of intermingled populations, financial hubs, trade routes and military infrastructure. The creative contributors to this highly original volume, not content to study only the legacies of empires past, even try to imagine the likely future legacies of the American empire.’

Jack Snyder - Robert and Renée Belfer Professor of International Relations, Columbia University

‘Sandra Halperín and Ronen Palan have brought together an impressive group of scholars who have demonstrated, across a vast range of time and space from ancient Mongol to the modern United States, just how much the politics of the modern world has evolved in the shadow of the our collective imperial pasts. 'World history', in the editors’ own words, 'is imperial history'. This is a book that no person concerned with the present plight of the international order can afford to ignore.’

Anthony Pagden - Distinguished Professor, University of California, Los Angeles