The concept of “Empire” is no longer what we think it is. We used to know an empire as a state, or a nation, that would rule over a large territory, which it usually would have gained through military conquest. In a capitalistic point of view, we could also see an empire as a single corporation holding a monopoly over a specific market in many different countries. However, Michael Hardt, an American literary theorist and political philosopher, and Antonio Negri, an Italian Marxist sociologist and political philosopher as well, have shifted our perspective and brought us to a revelation: such concepts cannot be sustained in our modern world anymore. They have redefined the term of “Empire” in their acclaimed work, considered by some to be the new communist manifesto of the 21st century. In this essay, I will elaborate on my understanding of the concept and the authors’ view of the future with this new Empire.  

 

To truly understand the theory, we must first modify something we attributed to empires beforehand. The concept brought by Hardt and Negri has no boundary. It is not limited by a frontier, as it is omnipresent. In fact, its “rule has not limits” (Felluga, 2015). It cannot even be limited by history, as they believe we currently are in the heart of the conversion, from the capitalist imperialism regime towards Empire, which would become the final stage of mankind’s society and thus become the end of history. This rule would seek to control the social life of our entire specie through the use of “biopower”, which is "an explosion of numerous and diverse techniques for achieving the subjugations of bodies and the control of populations" (Foucault, 1976). Therefore, biopower simply means that the Empire would use too many different ways of controlling the populations, consequently its people could not stay well informed and it would thus succeed into supressing their individual thoughts and control them. However, not everything about this new concept must be seen as a threat to us. Our former thoughts on an empire would imply that it was born from bloodshed and conquest. Hardt and Negri’s concept sees Empire as striving to maintain peace in its domain, a never ending harmony that would transcend time and history (Felluga, 2015). Empire is already emerging, therefore it is too late to try to avoid it. However, we should accept it is happening and put it to good use. Hardt and Negri believe that the same processes that are giving birth to Empire could be used to create a counter-Empire. With such a worldwide mechanism, we can create a fluid flow of exchanges between the nations, which would work to everyone’s benefit. 

 

To conclude, a new definition of the concept of Empire has risen. One that cannot be attributed to a nation or a corporation and that transcends history. It is already slowly taking hold of mankind’s social life. What is left for us to do is to use the same mechanisms that are creating it to fight it, by creating an alternate form of ruling that could possibly connect the entirety of our specie. This way, mankind’s future may not be as grim as it might look.