Imperial Ends

Why do empires decline? And why do some - including perhaps the former Soviet empire - collapse and revive? A leading political scientist examines the nature, theory, and continuing contemporary relevance of empire, a topic suddenly attracting enormous interest in the era of globalization. Imperial Ends focuses on five empires in particular: Romanov, Wilhelmine, Habsburg, Ottoman, and Soviet. The author maintains that the very structure of empires promotes decay and that decay in turn facilitates the progressive loss of territory. Examining the possibility of Russian revival, Motyl points out that the expansion of NATO and the European Union, along with increasing globalization, will isolate Russia and its neighbors, promoting their dependence on one another and perhaps facilitating the rise of the former core.