Globalisation is seen as a recent development, yet the trend towards this phenomenon was identified as long ago as 1916, in Lenin's now classic work Imperialism, he accounts for the increasing importance of the world market in the twentieth century.

The concept of imperialism lies at the very heart of Marxist analysis and debate and Lenin offers a prescient scenario of a world shaken by competitive instability, war and crisis, dominated by monopolies, the merging of finance and industrial capital, and fierce territorial competition. It's relevance is now greater than ever.