Capitalism makes possible a new form of domination by purely economic means, argues Ellen Meiksins Wood. So, surely, even the mot seasoned White House hawk would prefer to exercise global hegemony in this way, without the costly colonial entanglements. Yet, as Wood powerfully demonstrates, the economic empire of capital has also created a new and unlimited militarism. By contrasting the new imperialism to historical forms such as the roman and Spanish Empires, and by tracing the development of capitalist imperialism back to the English domination of Ireland and on to the British Empire in America and India, Wood shows how today's capitalist empire, a global economy administered by many local states, has come to spawn a new military doctrine of war without end, in purpose or time.