Events in recent years, including Israel’s genocide in Gaza, signify a qualitative change in the US-dominated world order. Imperialism has begun its transformation to a new stage: Hyper-Imperialism. This is imperialism conducted in an exaggerated and kinetic way, whilst also subject to the constraints that the declining empire has foisted on itself. The spasmodic quality of its exertion is felt by the millions of Congolese, Palestinians, Somalis, Syrians, and Yemeni – whose heads instinctively jerk for cover at sudden sounds of the over US$ 2 trillion dollar military spending of the US-led Military Bloc.

Over the past century, there have been major shifts in the debates and theories concerning the question of development. In the post-war era, this evolution can be divided into four eras: the era of modernisation theory, the era of the New International Economic Order, the era of neoliberal globalisation, and the current transitional era following the 2007–2008 financial crisis. This dossier examines the historical and current thinking on development and offers an outline for a new socialist development theory.

Short-term pain, long-term gain defines the dangerous escalation by the United States and its Western allies against Russia and China. What is striking about the US’s agenda is that it seeks to prevent an inevitable historical process – Eurasian integration. The historical fact of Eurasian integration threatens the economic and political hegemony of the US and Northern Atlantic elites. These threats drive the New Cold War and dangerous attempts to use any means to ‘weaken’ both Russia and China.

We are witnessing a dangerous political, economic, and military escalation by the United States and its Western allies against Russia and China. The United States seeks to prevent a historical process that seems inevitable, the process of Eurasian integration, which threatens the primacy of the Euro-Atlantic elites. To secure global hegemony, the United States is committed to the pursuit of global nuclear primacy and is willing to use any means to ‘weaken’ both Russia and China – even at the risk of destroying the planet.

As part of its policy to dominate the American hemisphere, the United States organised the 9th Summit of the Americas, excluding Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela. Although Washington tirelessly seeks to impose a Global Monroe Doctrine on the planet, the summit was a fiasco. Down the road, however, the People’s Summit for Democracy flourished; here, thousands of people celebrated the democratic spirit which emerges from the struggles of peasants, workers, students, feminists, and all the people excluded from the gaze of the powerful.