Imperialist discourse in the post-colonial era: a review of conceptual approaches

The study discusses the historical and political approaches to the concept of empire and the economic and progressivist approaches to the notion of imperialism in Russian research. The paper analyzes the concepts of empire and imperialism in international post-colonial studies and presents Herfried Muenkler’s approach to the understanding of empire. These approaches make it possible to describe the differences between empire and imperialism, establish fundamental characteristics of modern empires, which include vast areas, ethnic heterogeneity, time duration, consolidation of power, unlimited hegemony (applicable to political approach), globalization and excessiveness as tools of power (applicable to post-colonial discourse practices), borders as a marker of influence, metropolity, sporadic and ambivalent nature (applicable to Muenkler’s approach). The authors identify that the concept of empire is updated as a trait of the modern post-colonial world.