Debating uneven and combined development: towards a Marxist theory of 'the international'?

The following is the second of a two-part section series. The first section, 'Global capitalism and the states system', brought together a diverse group of scholars to examine a number of issues raised by Alex Callinico's article 'Does capitalism need the state system?' (2007). In particular, this centred on whether the relationship between a multiplicity of states and capitalism is a contingent or structural one, and, correlatively, how this relationship might be conceptualized in explaining geopolitical competition and war. In other words, are international relations to be understood in terms of two autonomous, but intertwining, territorial and capitalist logics of power, or one, single articulated logic? This led to a subsequent series of letters between Justin Rosenberg and Alex Callinicos (2008) on the theoretical significance of Leon Trotsky's concept of uneven and combined development (U&CD) -- a resource Callincos uses to explain the persistence of many states under capitalism. Adapted from the source document.