The events of 11 September 2001 ignited a scholarly debate on the new US imperialism. The war on Iraq only added to the impression that the United States – and Europe in its wake – is practicing a form of imperial rule that lacks sufficient basis in international law through military intervention, wars and occupation regimes. The concept of imperialism, long regarded as an outdated postulate of Marxist theory and had largely disappeared from the academic world, has become respectable again, though there is no final clarity about how to define it. Within the political sphere, however, both left- and right-wing interpreters of world politics essentially agree that there is a Western claim to power that goes beyond the Western nation state, though the goals, legitimacy and necessity of Western intervention are greatly contested. Political violence is by no means entirely banished or proscribed in the West but is justified in contemporary terms.

How does this compare with the expansionist tendencies of Islamic states? The Arab world, Turkey, Iran and Indonesia also have an imperial history – but do they have an imperial present? Certainly in embryonic form, sometimes even in the form of chauvinistic cultural aspirations, but only to a limited degree as a political reality. There is a possibility of border disputes and bilateral wars. Given the political weakness of Islamic states, however, no country is now in a position to make good on any imperial aspirations to rule several countries and regions, as occurred so often throughout the history of the Islamic world.