帝国新论

A New Analytical Commentary on Empire

帝国是人类历史上最重要的国家权力结构和等级秩序体系之一,人类进入文明社会后的绝大部分时间曾经生活在各种形式的帝国体系之下,因而帝国也是政治学最重要的范畴之一。作为一种特殊的国家权力结构,帝国既不同于国家、民族、王国、联邦和民族国家,也不同于大国、霸权、殖民地和帝国主义,从某种意义上说,它是世界历史上一种特定的国际秩序体系。在全球化时代,人类需要一种全新的国际秩序结构,但不再是历史上盛极一时的帝国体系。尽管帝国主义还将存在,但帝国的时代已经一去不复返。

Empire is among the most important state power structures and hierarchical order systems in the humanhistory. Human beings spent most time under various forms of empires through the whole civilized age. Andthus empire has become one of the essential concepts of political science. As a particular state powerstructure, empire distinguishes itself from not only state, nation, kingdom and nation-state, but also majorpower, hegemony, colony and imperialism. It is, in a sense, a specific international order system alongsideworld history. In the era of globalization, mankind needs a new international order structure, but theimperial system that once flourished in the past is definitely not our choice. Despite the persistent existenceof imperialism, the golden time of empire has now been gone forever.