The Unlimited War of Contemporary Imperialism and Its Inner Logic

From tribal conflicts to interstate warfare, for thousands of years war has seemed an inescapable knot in human history. As capitalism moved from free competition to monopoly, its inner contradictions sharpened, ultimately culminating in the outbreak of the First World War. Lenin keenly discerned the relationship between capitalism and war, and in his theory of imperialism he pointed out that it was precisely the struggle for the world’s resources that triggered military conflict among the major capitalist powers. From the late twentieth century onward, with the dramatic transformation of the world configuration in the course of historical evolution, traditional imperialist colonial wars have gradually faded, or rather, imperialist war has taken on new forms. As the Australian scholar Hugh Smith puts it, “War may have become a less common feature of relations between contemporary states, but it has not yet been abolished.” In other words, the imperialist colonial wars of the first half of the twentieth century, which took territorial expansion as their primary mode, appear to have been increasingly replaced by a new type of warfare — what the Western leftist scholar Ellen Meiksins Wood, at the beginning of the new century, called “war without end.” This article attempts to examine contemporary imperialism and its new mode of warfare from the perspectives of Wood and the psychoanalytic scholar Slavoj Žižek on contemporary imperialism, in the hope of offering some reflections for current academic research on the problem of capitalism.

从部落斗争到国家攻伐，数千年来，战争似乎成为人类历史无法解开的死结。随着资本主义从自由竞争走向垄断，其内在矛盾更加尖锐，最终导致第一次世界大战的爆发。列宁敏锐地洞见了资本主义与战争的关系，并在其帝国主义理论中指出，正是对世界资源的争夺引发了各资本主义强国间的军事战争。至20世纪后期以降，伴随世界格局在历史演进中的剧变，传统的帝国主义殖民战争逐渐淡化，或者说帝国主义战争出现了新变化。正如澳大利亚学者休·史密斯(Hugh Smith)所言，“战争可能已成为当代国家间关系一个不太常见的特征，但它尚未被废除”。换言之，20世纪上半叶之前的以领土扩张为重要方式的帝国主义殖民战争似乎日渐被一种新型战争模式取代，也就是西方左翼学者艾伦·伍德(Ellen Meiksins Wood)在新世纪之初提出的“无限战争”(war without end)。本文试图从伍德和精神分析学者斯拉沃热·齐泽克(Slavoj Žižek)有关当代帝国主义的论述出发，对当代帝国主义及其新型战争模式加以考察，以期为当下学界的资本主义问题研究提供一些思考。

I. The “Without End” of Unlimited War and Its Multiple Dimensions

一、 无限战争之“无限”及其多重维度

Cases of traditional imperialism launching war are not uncommon in history; the aims of such wars were mostly to seize territory, plunder resources, and export capital. For traditional imperialism, therefore, military strength was the most prominent manifestation of national power. Although, with the passage of time, economic power has far exceeded the original political and territorial boundaries, imperialism has never abandoned the use of military force. Yet from the second half of the twentieth century onward, the military operations of contemporary imperialism have exhibited certain new features or phenomena, often no longer aimed at direct territorial occupation. For example,

传统帝国主义发动战争的案例，在历史上并不少见，其发动战争的目的，多为侵占领土、掠夺资源、输出资本等。因此，对于传统帝国主义而言，军事实力是国家实力最突出的体现。虽然随着时代的发展，经济力量已远远超出原有的政治和领土边界，但帝国主义从未放弃过动用军事力量。然而20世纪后半期以来，当代帝国主义的军事行动出现了一些新特征或新现象，往往不再以直接的领土侵占等为目的。例如，

The United States “does not directly rule or occupy any country, anywhere in the world,” and Britain, even after the Second World War, relinquished the vast majority of its colonies, granting these former colonial countries independence. What, then, is the reason for this? As the Italian Marxist economist Giovanni Arrighi noted, launching war is nothing other than a means of obtaining some expected gain; blind expansion is highly likely to exceed the imperial power’s own critical point because of overextended lines, leading to negative returns. For instance, the expansion of British territory after the First World War meant that “the costs of empire began to far exceed its revenues, laying the groundwork for the Labour government’s dissolution of the empire after the Second World War.” It is evident that, in many cases, conventional interstate war does not necessarily bring the expected gains and favorable outcomes to the initiating state; “territorial acquisition is subject to a fine-grained cost-benefit analysis.” Hence, a new mode of military warfare that breaks with traditional understanding has emerged, a mode Wood calls “unlimited war.” So-called unlimited war is “not necessarily continuous war, but war indefinite in duration, purpose, means, and spatial impact.”

美国“没有直接统治或占领一个国家，在世界上任何地区都没有”,而英国甚至在第二次世界大战后放弃了绝大部分殖民地，并让这些原殖民地国家获得独立。那么，其原因究竟是什么呢?诚如意大利马克思主义经济学家乔万尼·阿瑞吉(Giovanni Arrighi)所言，发动战争无非是为了获取某种预期收益，盲目扩张极有可能由于帝国战线过长而超越自身的临界点，从而导致负向收益，如一战后英国领土的扩张使得“帝国的开支开始远超其收益，从而为二战后工党政府解散帝国埋下了伏笔”。可见，很多时候，国家间的常规战争未必能为战争发起国带来预期的收益和良好的结果,“领土获取要受到精细的成本—效益分析”。由是，一种打破传统认知的新的军事战争模式生成了，伍德将这样的战争模式称为“无限战争”。所谓无限战争并“不一定是连续的战争，而是在期限、目的、手段和空间影响方面都不确定的战争”。

First, the “unlimited” character of unlimited war is manifested in the limitlessness or protractedness of its duration.

第一，无限战争之“无限”表现为战争期限的无限性或延绵性。

Unlimited war originated in the Cold War, stemming from the long-term competition and confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union in the 1990s, the United States became the world’s sole superpower. Yet the United States did not thereby end its state of unlimited war; on the contrary, it continued to invest enormous funds and resources to maintain its formidable military strength. The reason the United States maintains this limitlessness or protractedness in the time and state of war is that the disappearance of the Soviet Union did not allow the United States to rest easy; instead, it “made it more complicated for the United States to maintain its hegemony over its allies.” For the United States, the old powerful adversary had vanished, but the threat had not been lifted. Although the Japanese-American scholar Francis Fukuyama advanced the thesis of the “end of history” after the Soviet collapse, the United States, as the world hegemon, not only failed to slow its military buildup but further strengthened its own hegemony. However, the United States changed its mode of military presence and deterrence, because it believed that the threat it faced had shifted from the former direct U.S.-Soviet confrontation to potential challenges from unknown enemies. More precisely, although the Soviet Union had disintegrated, the potential threats facing the United States still existed, only the adversary and the mode had changed. The identity of friend and foe is uncertain; former allies might in the future threaten one’s own interests. Therefore, war will persist over the long term. The United States has always believed that “unilateral global superiority, once achieved, can by no means be permanently maintained.” Hence, the United States’ long-term maintenance of hegemony — especially military hegemony — over today’s allies and all other countries is precisely the maintenance of a powerful capacity to confront any possible future threat. It is for this reason that unlimited war is unlimited or protracted in time.

无限战争发端于冷战，源于美国对苏联的长期竞赛和对抗。20世纪90年代苏联解体后，美国成为世界上唯一的超级大国。但美国并未就此结束其无限战争状态，相反，它依然不惜投入庞大的经费和资源以维持自身强大的军事力量。美国保持这种战争时间与状态的无限性或延绵性的原因在于，苏联的消失并没有使美国从此高枕无忧，相反，它“使美国维持对其盟国的霸权更加复杂化”。对美国而言，旧有的强大对手消失了，但威胁并没有解除。尽管美籍日裔学者弗朗西斯·福山(Francis Fukuyama)在苏联解体后提出了“历史终结”的观点，可作为世界霸主的美国不仅没有就此放缓其军事建设，反而进一步强化了自身霸权。不过，美国变换了其军事存在与威慑方式，因为它认为自身所遭受的威胁从原来的美苏直接对抗变成了来自未知敌人的潜在挑战。更确切地说，虽然苏联已经解体，但美国面临的潜在威胁依旧存在，只不过变换了对手和方式。敌我的身份是不确定的，昔日的盟友今后也可能威胁到自身利益。因此，战争将会长期存在。美国始终坚信，“单边的全球优势无论如何都不会一旦获得，永久保持”。所以，美国长久地保持对今日之盟国和其他各国的霸权尤其是军事霸权，就是保持对日后任何可能之威胁的强大对抗能力。正由于此，无限战争在时间上是无限性的或延绵性的。

Second, the “unlimited” character of unlimited war is manifested in the limitlessness or indeterminacy of its military objectives.

第二，无限战争之“无限”表现为战争军事目的的无限性或不确定性。

According to traditional “just war” theory, achieving a specific military objective is one of the basic conditions for launching war. However, the unlimited war of contemporary imperialism no longer needs to prove its “legitimacy” by achieving specific military goals; that is, it is detached from any particular military motive. Freed from the constraints of the framework of “achievable objectives,” the military operations of contemporary imperialism appear all the more bewildering and also possess a more potent potential for deterrence: “It has the right to launch large-scale preemptive strikes whenever and wherever it deems necessary, not only for clearly ascertainable reasons, and certainly not only in the face of a real existing military threat, but to prevent some danger that has not yet occurred — or, indeed, for no reason at all.” As long as contemporary imperialism subjectively considers it necessary, it may launch a military strike against any country, region, organization, group, or individual. For example, the 2003 U.S.-British war against Iraq was launched on the grounds that Iraq had refused to hand over chemical and biological weapons (although no so-called weapons of mass destruction were subsequently found). Nevertheless, this limitlessness in purpose is only a limitlessness of military purpose, not of political purpose. In reality, unlimited war is always clear in its political purpose: it points toward a hegemony that dominates and controls the global order. Therefore, all the seemingly vague military objectives of contemporary imperialism ultimately point toward the political purpose of contending for global hegemony — “the idea of using armed forces for political goals is more prevalent and more flourishing than the idea of achieving some specific military objective.”

根据传统的“正义战争”理论，实现特定的军事目的是发动战争的基本条件之一。然而，当代帝国主义的无限战争不再需要通过实现特定的军事目标来证明其“合理性”,即它与特定的军事动机分离了。从“可实现目标”这一框架的束缚中解放后，当代帝国主义的军事行动显得更加扑朔迷离，也更加具有潜在的威慑力：“不论何时何地，只要它感到必要，它就有权实施大规模先发制人式的打击，不仅是出于可以清楚地断定的原因，当然也不仅是为了面对真实存在的军事威胁，而是为了预防某些尚未发生的危险——或者，甚至可以说什么原因都不需要。”只要当代帝国主义主观上认为必要，就可能对任何国家、地区、组织团体或个人发动军事打击。例如，2003年英美对伊拉克的战争就是以伊拉克拒绝交出生化武器为由发动的(尽管事后并未发现所谓大规模杀伤性武器)。然而，这种目的上的无限性仅仅是一种军事目的而非政治目的的无限性。实际上，无限战争在政治目的上始终是明确的，它指向一种主宰和掌控全球秩序的霸权。因此，当代帝国主义所有一切看似模糊的军事目的，最终都指向了其争夺全球霸权的政治目的——“为政治目标而动用军队的想法要比实现某种特定的军事目标的想法更为普遍和方兴未艾”。

Third, the “unlimited” character of unlimited war is manifested in the limitlessness or disproportionality of its means.

第三，无限战争之“无限”表现为战争手段的无限性或不适度性。

Since the infinite war of contemporary imperialism is no longer linked to the achievement of specific military objectives, its means correspondingly no longer follow the principle of “proportionality.” That is to say, what accompanies the infinity or indeterminacy of military ends is necessarily the infinity or disproportionality of military means: “We may have to abandon the ‘principle of proportionality’ at the same time — not only because we are required to accept ‘disproportionate’ means, but more because, in the absence of a specific goal, there is simply no deduction related to it.” For example, in the 2001 war in Afghanistan, the United States launched military action against Afghanistan impatiently even before formal authorization from the United Nations. During the war, it used various advanced modern weapons such as the USS Kitty Hawk aircraft carrier, Tomahawk cruise missiles, Global Hawk drones, and B-2 bombers, which were enormously destructive. While dealing a fatal blow to terrorist organizations, they also caused heavy casualties among Afghan civilians. It can be seen that, as military means move toward infinity or disproportionality, the emergence in the future of various biochemical weapons and radiological weapons of immense destructive power is not impossible. Once such an infinite war occurs, its irreversible consequences will cast a lingering shadow over the future of human society. Therefore, the “humanitarian wars” and “wars on terror” proclaimed by contemporary imperialist powers will ultimately only bring about even more severe humanitarian disasters and terrorist crises, while the banners of freedom, equality, democracy, and human rights they so loudly raise will, under the military logic of infinite war, become an unsolvable paradox.

由于当代帝国主义的无限战争不再与实现特定的军事目标相联系，其手段相应地不再遵循“适度性”原则。也就是说，与军事目的的无限性或不确定性相伴随的，必然是战争手段的无限性或不适度性，“我们可能不得不同时放弃‘适度性原则’——不仅仅是我们被要求接受‘不适度’的手段，而更是因为，在没有特定目标的情况下，就根本不会有与此相关的推演”。例如，在2001年的阿富汗战争中，美国在联合国正式授权之前便迫不及待地对阿富汗采取了军事行动，战争期间使用了“小鹰”号航空母舰、战斧式巡航导弹、“全球鹰”无人机、B-2轰炸机等各式先进现代武器，破坏力巨大，在对恐怖组织造成致命打击的同时，也给阿富汗平民带来了重大伤亡。由此可见，由于战争手段走向无限性或不适度性，未来各种破坏力巨大的生化武器、辐射性武器的出场也不无可能。而这样的无限战争一旦发生，其不可逆的后果将为人类社会的未来笼罩一层挥之不去的阴霾。因此，当代帝国主义强国所宣称的“人道主义战争”、“反恐战争”最终只会带来更为深重的人道主义灾难和恐怖主义危机，而其所高扬的自由、平等、民主、人权等旗帜，最终也会在无限战争的军事逻辑之下成为无解的悖论。

Fourth, the “infinity” of infinite war is manifested in the infinity or openness of the spatial impact of war.

第四，无限战争之“无限”表现为战争空间影响的无限性或开放性。

This infinity or openness of spatial impact actually indicates that the fear brought by infinite war is global. First, because the subject that launches infinite war is the contemporary imperialist power, the object of war is first of all socialist countries. Socialist countries do not submit to the rules and order of contemporary imperialism, which is detrimental to the expansion and valorization of capital on a global scale and constitutes a major obstacle to contemporary imperialism’s global hegemony. Therefore, contemporary imperialism must first make the spatial influence of infinite war pervade socialist countries, or even any region where there are sprouts of socialism. Second, besides socialist countries, some so-called “rogue states” are also included in the list of objects of infinite war. These states operate outside the normal track of contemporary imperialism and pose a certain threat to it; they are labeled by contemporary imperialism as the “axis of evil.” Hence, at least in the short term, contemporary imperialism will inevitably focus the spatial influence of infinite war on such states to suppress their forces of resistance. Third, the interior of contemporary imperialism is not united and without fissures; there exist complex and subtle relations of competition and checks and balances among them. Whether it is the European Union or Japan, the United States will not allow them to seize the position of world hegemon that it currently occupies. Therefore, the United States is bound to extend the influence of infinite war spatially to its competitive allied states. It can be seen that the impact of infinite war is not limited to specific targets and spatial fields; it always presents itself as an infinite or open posture — that is, the spatial influence of war can radiate to socialist countries with ideologies different from its own, can also radiate to any other country within capitalist space, and when necessary can even encompass strategic allies. “The entire world, not merely a communist enemy, will be regarded as its potential enemy and needs to be counterbalanced by military control.”

这种空间影响的无限性或开放性实际上表明了无限战争所带来的恐惧是全球性的。其一，由于无限战争的发动主体是当代帝国主义强国，所以战争的对象首先是社会主义国家。社会主义国家不服从当代帝国主义的规则和秩序，这不利于资本在全球范围内的扩张和增殖，是当代帝国主义争霸全球的重要障碍，因此当代帝国主义首先要使无限战争的空间影响力遍布社会主义国家甚或只要是有社会主义萌芽的地区。其二，除了社会主义国家之外，一些所谓“流氓国家”也被纳入无限战争的对象列表中。这些国家处于当代帝国主义的正常轨道之外，并对其造成一定威胁，被当代帝国主义定性为“邪恶轴心”,因此至少短期内当代帝国主义必然会将无限战争的空间影响力重点辐射到这类国家，以压制其反抗力量。其三，当代帝国主义内部并非团结一致、毫无裂隙，它们相互之间存在着复杂而微妙的竞争与制衡关系。无论是欧盟还是日本，美国不会允许它们夺取目前自己所占据的世界霸主之位，因此美国势必会将无限战争的影响力在空间上扩展至自己的竞争性盟国。可见，无限战争所产生的影响并不限于特定的行动对象和空间场域，它总是呈现为一种无限性或开放性姿态，即战争的空间影响可以辐射至迥异于自身意识形态的社会主义国家，也可以辐射至资本主义空间中的其他任何国家，在必要时甚至可以囊括战略盟友。“整个世界，而不仅仅是一个共产主义敌人，将会被视为其潜在的敌人，并需要以军事控制来加以制衡”。

In summary, the infinite war of contemporary imperialism takes as its intrinsic dimensions the infinity or prolongation of the duration of war, the infinity or indeterminacy of the military objectives of war, the infinity or disproportionality of the means of war, and the infinity or openness of the spatial impact of war, thereby distinguishing it markedly from the colonial war model of early imperialism, which took direct territorial occupation and coercive military control as its main means.

综上所述，当代帝国主义的无限战争以战争期限的无限性或延绵性、战争军事目的的无限性或不确定性、战争手段的无限性或不适度性以及战争空间影响的无限性或开放性为内在维度，从而显著区别于早期帝国主义那种以直接的领土占领和强制的军事控制为主要手段的殖民战争模式。

II. The Spectral Character of Infinite War

二、无限战争的幽灵特性

In Eastern and Western myths or legends, a specter mostly refers to an apparition of the dead that appears in the world. It has no fixed form, is not visible to the naked eye, its traces are elusive and uncertain, yet it truly exists and exerts a significant or even decisive influence on the operation of the real world. In his collected essays *Mapping Ideology*, Slavoj Žižek proposed the concept of the “specter of ideology,” emphasizing that the specter possesses “three characteristics: omnipresence, being both real and illusory, and eternal existence.” [3]3 Slavoj Žižek, ed., *Mapping Ideology* (London: Verso, 1994). The reference is to Žižek’s discussion of the spectral dimension of ideology, drawing on Jacques Derrida’s concept of the specter. Based on this, it can be said that infinite war embodies the existence and deterrent power of contemporary imperialism in the form of a specter.

在东西方神话或传说中，幽灵多指称显现于世的亡灵，它没有固定的形态，亦不为肉眼所洞见，它的踪迹飘忽无定，但确实存在并对现实世界的运行产生重大乃至决定性影响。齐泽克在其论文集《图绘意识形态》中提出了“意识形态的幽灵”这一概念，强调幽灵具有“无处不在、亦真亦幻、永恒存在的三大特性”。基于此，可以说无限战争就是以某种幽灵的形式来体现当代帝国主义的存在及其威慑力。

First, infinite war possesses a spectral-like enduring vitality.

第一，无限战争具有幽灵式的持久生命力。

Contemporary imperialism takes infinite war as one of its important means of maintaining global hegemony, so it will never slacken and abandon the posture of war simply because it has achieved temporary victories in several games or actual battles. On the contrary, contemporary imperialism constantly injects a continuous stream of energy into infinite war through massive resource investments, transforming it into a persistently existing specter, thereby escaping from every concrete game and traditional war with a clear temporal endpoint. In other words, through the spectral form of infinite war, contemporary imperialism transcends the limits of time and exists outside the finite, leaving its opponents no breathing space. This is why “just as the nature of bad weather does not consist in one or two showers of rain, but in the tendency to rain for many days in a row, so the nature of war does not consist in actual fighting, but in the known intention to fight throughout the entire period when there is no guarantee of peace.” [4]4 This is a paraphrase of Carl von Clausewitz’s argument in *On War*, Book I, Chapter 1, Section 3, where he compares the nature of war to the nature of bad weather. In this sense, we can understand why “in certain circumstances, the goal of the military is actually a kind of warning terror, or ‘demonstration effect.’” For instance, “the extensive network of quasi-permanent overseas military bases established by the United States during and after World War II” [5]5 This refers to the global network of U.S. military bases established during and after World War II, which has been maintained and expanded as a key instrument of U.S. global military posture. is largely intended to achieve this spectral-like enduring demonstration effect. Moreover, the long-term nuclear deterrence that contemporary imperialist powers exercise against other countries and among themselves is a concentrated manifestation of the terror of this enduring specter, and also the global fear that infinite war seeks to realize. It is a fear located at the zero level. The so-called “zero level” here means that it is both hidden and invisible, yet truly exists, possessing a potential substantive threat. Therefore, the fear at the zero level is neither present and imminent at every moment, nor completely non-existent; what it reveals is precisely a new form of imperialism.

当代帝国主义将无限战争作为维持全球霸权的重要方式之一，因此绝不会因为在数场博弈或实战中取得暂时胜利而有所懈怠并放弃维持战争姿态。相反，当代帝国主义始终通过大量的资源投入为无限战争注入源源不断的能量，使之化身为持久存在的幽灵，以此从每一场有明确时间节点的具体博弈和传统战争中逃逸出来。换言之，通过无限战争的幽灵形式，当代帝国主义超越时间的限度而处在有限之外，不给对手留任何喘息的空隙，这也就是为什么“正如同恶劣气候的性质不在于一两阵暴雨，而在于一连许多天中下雨的倾向一样，战争的性质也不在于实际的战斗，而在于整个没有和平保障的时期中人所共知的战斗意图”。在此意义上，我们才能理解缘何“某些情况下，军队的目标实际就是一种警示性的恐怖，或称‘示威效应’”。比如“二战期间和之后由美国建立的广泛的准永久性海外军事基地网络”在很大程度上正是要实现这种幽灵般的持久性示威效应。而当代帝国主义强国对别国及其相互之间的长期核威慑，更是这种持久性幽灵可怖之处的集中体现，也是无限战争所希望实现的全球恐惧。它是一种位于零层面(zero-level)的恐惧，这里所谓的“零层面”指其既是隐匿的、看不见的，却又是真实存在的，具有潜在的实质性威胁。因此，零层面的恐惧既非时时刻刻存在并马上发生，又非完全不存在，它所展示出来的恰是某种新的帝国主义样态。

Second, infinite war possesses a spectral-like ever-changing form.

第二，无限战争具有幽灵式的变动不居的形体。

Infinite war is separated from specific military motives; it is no longer clearly aimed at occupying a certain territory, eliminating a certain enemy, plundering a certain resource, or the like as its military objective. The core element of infinite war lies not in the specific military content or military objective, but in this form itself. Just as for a specter, the core issue is not the specific form it takes, but the totality of formal possibilities inherent in this living being itself. As a war model of contemporary imperialism, the specific military content or military objective of infinite war has become irrelevant; it has become a pure form. It is this form itself that causes the military logic of contemporary imperialism to generate infinite meanings. In other words, contemporary imperialism shapes infinite war into a specter without a fixed body, capable of taking form at any time, yet always able to remain elusive. As a specter-like formless war model, on the one hand, infinite war is still war, and a war with even stronger political objectives, yet it is not identical to this; on the other hand, infinite war is also non-war, but not entirely so. In reality, infinite war drifts between war and non-war, no longer possessing the clear and distinct military objectives of early imperialist colonial wars, nor being constrained by established rules and order.

无限战争是与特定的军事动机相分离的，它不再明确地以侵占某一块领土、消灭某一个敌人、掠夺某一种资源等为军事目的。无限战争最核心的要素不在于具体的军事内容或军事目的，而在于它这种形式本身，正如对于幽灵而言，问题的核心并不在于所幻化的具体形态，而在于它这个生灵本身所具有的一切形态可能性。作为当代帝国主义的战争模式，无限战争的具体军事内容或军事目的已经无关紧要，它成了一种纯粹的形式。正是这一形式本身，使得当代帝国主义的军事逻辑派生出无穷的意义。换言之，当代帝国主义将无限战争塑造为一个无固定形体的幽灵，随时可以幻化成形，却又始终能够飘忽无定。作为一种幽灵般无形的战争模式，一方面，无限战争依然是战争，并且是政治目标更强的战争，却又不等同于此；另一方面，无限战争又是非战争，但也不尽然。实际上，无限战争游弋于战争与非战争之间，不再如早期帝国主义殖民战争一般有着明确清晰的军事目的，也不再受制于既定的规则和秩序。

Third, infinite war possesses a spectral-like potential deterrent power and destructive force.

第三，无限战争具有幽灵式的潜在威慑力和破坏力。

Because unlimited war abandons the achievement of specific military objectives, the means it adopts are correspondingly more indeterminate. And precisely because the means of unlimited war have been extracted from the finitude and determinacy of early imperialist colonial wars, it has truly transformed into a ghost of boundless power, moving toward a universality and infinity that dissolves all concrete content, possessing every potential possibility. Yet as a concealed ghostly existence, the potential possibilities of unlimited war are premised on the instability of its actual form; this instability or abstractness is the inherent negative quality that unlimited war itself contains. In order to seek stability of actual form and move from inherent negation to external affirmation, contemporary imperialism must necessarily, under certain spatiotemporal conditions, reinvest the means of war with concrete content. Thus, unlimited war may produce killing power and deterrence more terrifying than all past colonial wars. The ghostly form of war makes all modes of combat possible, thereby fully realizing “the elimination of individuals suspected of a certain order, and even the annihilation of any organization attempting to regroup.” If the means of early imperialist war lay above the iceberg, visible to the naked eye, and the destructiveness and consequences of war were on the whole limited and controllable, then the means adopted by contemporary imperialist unlimited war lie beneath the sea surface, beyond direct observation. This is an almost infinitely vast space of action, and it will inevitably be accompanied by a ghostly, more uncanny and powerful deterrence and destructiveness.

由于无限战争放弃了实现特定的军事目标，战争所采取的手段也相应地更为不确定。而正是因为无限战争的战争手段从早期帝国主义殖民战争的有限性和规定性中抽离了出来，它才真正化作了法力无边的幽灵，并走向了某种消融了一切具体内容的普遍性和无限性，拥有了一切潜在的可能性。但作为一种隐匿的幽灵式存在，无限战争的潜在可能性是以现实形体的不稳定性为前提的，这种不稳定性或抽象性就是无限战争自身蕴含的内在否定特质。而为了寻求现实形体的稳定性，从内在否定走向外在肯定，当代帝国主义必然会在某些时空条件下重新赋予战争手段具体内容。由此，无限战争有可能产生比过去一切殖民战争更加可怖的杀伤性和威慑力。幽灵化的战争形态使一切作战方式成为可能，从而得以彻底实现“对某种秩序有嫌疑的个人的铲除，乃至对任何企图重整旗鼓的组织的消灭”。如果说早期帝国主义的战争手段处于肉眼可视的冰山之上，战争的破坏力和后果整体而言是有限且可控的，那么当代帝国主义无限战争所采取的手段就处于不可直观的海平面之下。这是一片几乎无限广阔的行动空间，同时也必将附着某种幽灵一样的更加诡谲强大的威慑力和破坏力。

Fourth, unlimited war possesses a ghostly paradoxical quality.

第四，无限战争具有幽灵式的悖论性特质。

On the one hand, unlimited war is triggered by capital’s drive for profit; on the other hand, it plays the role of a sacred instrument that upholds world justice and maintains world peace. This ghost of unlimited war achieves the global deployment of war’s spatial influence precisely by shaping itself into the embodiment of justice. However, the problem is that when unlimited war is touted as a weapon of angels destroying demons, it has already moved from the “universal” to the “exception” (the world must operate according to my rules, while I am the exception; I can break the rules and act arbitrarily), thus becoming a paradoxical ghost with two sides in one. Further, there is an irreducible tension between unlimited war and the identity of the righteous it claims for itself: under the guise of supporting the Third World, counterterrorism, and maintaining peace, it helps contemporary imperialism gain dominance and control over the world—that is, when unlimited war is proclaimed as a mode of war for world justice in global space, it has already exposed its inherent private interest, which, as the spokesperson of capital, it cannot overcome. In reality, unlimited war, precisely under some seemingly sacred and public rhetoric or action, becomes a prop for contemporary imperialism to seek profit by imposing and deepening its influence in global space. It must strenuously shape itself into a mysterious sublime object through ideological illusion in order to truly spread war’s spatial influence across the globe; that is, it must maintain and display the side of the “upright” world police in order to conceal its all-too-“human” (greedy, selfish, cold-blooded, etc.) other side.

一方面，无限战争是由资本的逐利需求所引发的，另一方面，它又扮演着主持世界公道、维护世界和平的神圣工具的角色。无限战争这个幽灵正是通过将自己塑形为正义的化身来实现战争空间影响的全球布展。然而，问题在于，当无限战争被标榜为天使消灭恶魔的武器时，它已经从“普遍”走向了“例外”(世界必须按照我的规则运转，而我则是例外，我可以打破规则、肆意妄为),从而成为一个具有一体两面特质的悖论式幽灵。进一步说，无限战争与其所自居的正义者身份之间实际上存在着某种不可化约的张力：它以支援第三世界、反恐、维护和平等为名，帮助当代帝国主义获得了对世界的支配和掌控权，即当无限战争被宣称为是一种为了世界正义而进行的全球空间内的战争模式时，它已然暴露了其作为资本的代言者所无法克服的内在私利性。实际上，无限战争正是在某种看似神圣公开的说辞或行动下通过施加和深化全球空间影响而成为当代帝国主义谋取利益的道具。它必须竭力通过意识形态幻象将自身塑形为某种神秘的崇高客体，才能真正将战争的空间影响遍布全球，即它必须将“一身正气”的世界警察这一面维持和展现出来，才能隐藏其过于“人性”(贪婪、自私、冷酷等)的另一面。

In summary, because unlimited war has no limit in duration, it possesses the ghostly characteristic of “eternal life”; because unlimited war has no clear direction in military objectives, it can seize opportunities through its ever-changing form; because unlimited war has no clear boundary in the means of war, it is highly likely to adopt more radical modes of combat, thereby possessing a ghostly, uncanny and powerful deterrence and destructiveness; because unlimited war tends toward openness in its spatial influence, it possesses a ghostly paradoxical quality of two sides in one—that is, by disguising itself as the holy wings of an angel, it imposes and deploys war’s spatial influence, in order to conceal and satisfy its own base private interests.

综上所述，由于无限战争在期限上没有限制，它就拥有了“永生”这一幽灵特性；由于无限战争在军事目的上没有明确的指向，它就能够通过变动不居的形体伺机而动；由于无限战争在战争手段上没有清晰的界限，它极可能采取更为激进的作战方式，从而拥有了幽灵一样诡谲强大的威慑力和破坏力；由于无限战争在空间影响上趋于开放性，它便拥有了幽灵式一体两面的悖论性特质，即通过将自身装扮为圣洁的天使之翼，来施加和布展战争的空间影响，以掩盖和满足自己卑污的私利。

III. The Violent Essence of Unlimited War

三、无限战争的暴力本质

Whether it is Wood’s so-called centralized empire, commercial empire, or property empire, their establishment and maintenance are inseparable from bloody military means. And contemporary imperialism, as a new type of empire—the capital empire—is no exception; that is, from primitive accumulation, free competition, state monopoly to international monopoly, every stage of contemporary imperialism’s development is filled with the gene of violence. Of course, violence is of various kinds. Žižek, in *Violence: Six Sideways Reflections*, discusses three types: subjective violence, objective violence, and symbolic violence. Among them, “subjective violence is a disturbance of the ‘normal’ state of things, manifested as directly visible violent acts such as criminal acts, terrorist incidents, and social unrest.” Although subjective violence is filled with the bloody colors of destruction, aggression, and mania, and flows with the dark undertones of evil, greed, and coldness, in Žižek’s view, subjective violence does not yet constitute the ultimate evil of Behemoth and Leviathan. Compared with the latter two types of violence, “to resist the seduction of subjective violence, that is, the seduction of violence exercised by social organizations, evil individuals, disciplined oppressive machines, and fanatical crowds—subjective violence is merely the most obvious of the three types of violence.” That is to say, as a form of subjective violence, past imperialist wars, no matter how base their objectives, how grand their scale, how long they lasted, or how cruel their means, were only obvious physical violence, confined within a clearly bounded framework of action, even if that framework varied greatly.

无论是伍德所谓中央集权式帝国、商贸帝国还是财产帝国，其建立和维系都离不开铁血的战争手腕。而当代帝国主义作为一种新型帝国模式——资本帝国，同样不能例外，即从原始积累、自由竞争、国家垄断到国际垄断，当代帝国主义发展的各个阶段始终充满着暴力的基因。当然暴力是各种各样的，齐泽克在《暴力：六个侧面的反思》中谈到了三种：主观暴力、客观暴力、符号暴力。其中“主观暴力是对事物‘正常’状态的扰乱，它表现为犯罪行为、恐怖事件、社会动荡等直接可见的暴力行为”。尽管主观暴力充斥着破坏、侵犯、狂躁的血腥色彩，流淌着邪恶、贪婪、冷酷的灰暗底色，但在齐泽克看来，主观暴力尚不构成至邪至恶的贝希摩斯和利维坦。与后两种暴力相比，“要抵抗主观暴力的魅惑，也就是抵抗由社会组织、邪恶个体、纪律化的压迫机器以及狂热的群众所行使的暴力的魅惑——主观暴力仅仅是三种暴力中最显而易见的一种”。也就是说，作为一种主观暴力，过去的帝国主义战争无论其目的如何卑劣、规模如何宏大、耗时如何长久、手段如何残酷，都只是显而易见的物理暴力，都被限定在一个边界清晰的行动框架之内，尽管这个限定框架千差万别。

So, does unlimited war, as a new form of imperialism, still remain within the category of subjective violence? The answer is no. From the multiple dimensions of unlimited war and its ghostly characteristics, unlimited war is essentially not manifest subjective violence, because its initiation and maintenance are by no means the momentary whim or impulse of a few ruling personnel, nor can they be solely attributed to the personal cruelty of military commanders. Then, what kind of violence is this military model of unlimited war? Within Žižek’s classification of violence, it is objective violence—a concealed and structural form of violence. Žižek holds that objective violence “is more uncanny than any direct, pre-capitalist social ideological violence: we can no longer attribute this violence to any specific individual and their ‘evil’ intentions; it is a purely ‘objective,’ systemic, anonymous violence.” As a form of objective violence, unlimited war is deeply interwoven with the fabric of contemporary imperialism—capital needs endless expansion and accumulation, and unlimited war provides a lasting and far-reaching possibility for the logic of capital.

那么，作为帝国主义新形态的无限战争，是否依然囿于主观暴力的范畴之内呢?答案是否定的。从无限战争的多重维度以及其幽灵特性来看，无限战争本质上不是显在的主观暴力，因为其发动与维系绝非少数统治人员的一时兴起和冲动而为，也不能单一地归咎于军事统领个人心肠的歹毒。那么，无限战争这一军事模式，究竟是怎样的暴力呢?在齐泽克关于暴力的分类之中，它是客观暴力——一种隐匿和结构性的暴力形态。齐泽克认为，客观暴力“比任何直接的、前资本主义的社会意识形态暴力更诡异(uncanny):我们不能再将这种暴力归咎于任何具体个人和他们的‘邪恶’意图，它是一种纯粹‘客观的’、系统的、匿名的暴力”。作为一种客观暴力，无限战争与当代帝国主义的肌理深刻交融——资本需要永无止息地扩张与增殖，无限战争则为资本逻辑提供了持久而深远的可能性。

First, the violence of unlimited war possesses objectivity.

第一，无限战争的暴力具有客观性。

Although this violence has no temporal limit, no constraint of purpose, no limitation of means, and no spatial restriction, as a wandering specter of the Real, it nonetheless actually structures objective reality. Here, objective reality “refers to the social reality of real people in the process of mutual interaction and production, while the Real refers to that unchangeable ‘abstraction,’ the specter-like logic of capital that determines what will happen in social reality.” From the perspective of objectivity, the violent essence of infinite war does not lie in the destructive results it produces, but rather in the fact that its shifting, indeterminate intrinsic characteristics actually construct and manipulate the global space dominated by contemporary imperialism and produce such results. Therefore, the objectivity of this violence does not point to an already-formed shell of reality, but to a kernel of the Real hidden beneath that shell. This kernel shapes objective reality in all times and spaces in a certain silent manner, and it possesses all-encompassing possibilities. Today, when we confront the objective violent essence of infinite war, what we must warn against, or what we absolutely cannot ignore, is precisely this specter-like kernel of the Real in infinite war. It enables contemporary imperialism to “dissolve all limits, all immediately existing or existing-by-virtue-of nature, need, desire, and impulse, all given and prescribed content.” It seeks to break all bonds, to activate its own potentiality as far as possible, in order to structure the objective reality it requires, so as to ensure that the capital logic of contemporary imperialism roams unimpeded across global space.

这一暴力虽然没有时间的界限、没有目的的拘束、没有手段的局限、没有空间的制约，但作为真实界游牧的幽灵，却实实在在地结构了客观现实。这里，客观现实“是指彼此交往和生产过程之中的真实的人的社会现实，而真实界，是指那个无法改变、决定了社会现实里将发生什么事情的‘抽象化’、幽灵似的资本逻辑”。从客观性层面来说，无限战争的暴力本质并不在于其所造成的破坏性结果，而在于其游移不定的内在特性实际地建构和操纵了当代帝国主义主导下的全球空间并造成了这样的结果。因此，这种暴力的客观性指向的并非业已成型的现实外壳，而是一种潜藏于外壳之下的真实界内核。这种内核以某种悄无声息的方式形塑着所有时间和空间中的客观现实，它拥有无所不包的可能性。今天，当我们直面无限战争的客观性暴力本质时，所要警示的，或者说绝不能忽略的正是无限战争的这一真实界的幽灵式内核，它使当代帝国主义得以将“所有的限制，所有因本性、需要、欲望和冲动而直接现存的或者因之而存的、被给予的和被规定的内容都消融了”。它要通过打破所有的束缚，尽可能地将自身的潜在性激活，以结构它所需要的客观现实，以保障当代帝国主义的资本逻辑畅通无阻地游弋于全球空间。

Second, the violence of infinite war is systemic.

第二，无限战争的暴力具有系统性。

Infinite war is deeply embedded in the production and life of contemporary imperialism. Therefore, in a broad sense, each concrete military violence under the dominance of contemporary imperialism can be seen as a manifestation and extension of the systemic violence of infinite war, but at the same time, these concretized violences cannot fully express the entire connotation of systemic violence. The systemic violence of infinite war precisely characterizes a new paradigm of power for contemporary imperialism — “Empire” in the sense of Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri. What “Empire” strives to construct is not so much a disciplinary world as a world of control. The former, through the coercion of various disciplinary institutions, “ensures that people submit to its rule, to its mechanisms of inclusion and/or exclusion, thereby constructing the social field and proposing a logic of obedience to disciplinary ‘reason.’” It is the essence of traditional imperialist violence, forcing objects to submit to its tyranny through cold machinery and harsh decrees. The latter, by intensifying and universalizing the former, instead increasingly internalizes its own mode of rule within the object, making “control realized in flexible, variable network systems, so that its sphere of effectiveness far exceeds the strictly structured sites constituted by various social institutions.” Contemporary imperialism, relying on the boundless envelopment, deterrence, guidance, and internalization effects of the systemic violence of infinite war, may be able to plunge objects into infinite fear without launching physical military operations. On this basis, contemporary imperialism, supplemented by means such as economic aid, political庇护, and ideological propaganda, can easily make “the entire social organism constituted by power machines and developed into a virtual state.” This is the comprehensive control exerted by the systemic violence of infinite war over the exploited and oppressed objects.

无限战争深刻地镶嵌在当代帝国主义的生产生活中，因此，从广义上看，当代帝国主义主导下的每一次具体的军事暴力都可被视为无限战争系统性暴力的展现和延伸，但与此同时，这些具象化的暴力又不能尽数表达系统性暴力的全部内涵。无限战争的系统性暴力恰恰表征着当代帝国主义的一种全新权力范式——迈克尔·哈特(Michael Hardt)和安东尼奥·奈格里(Antonio Negri)意义上的“帝国”。“帝国”所致力于建构的与其说是一种规训型世界，毋宁说是一种控制型世界。前者以各种规训机构的强制性“确保人们服从于它的统治，服从于它的接纳和/或排斥机制，从而对社会领域进行建构，提出顺从规训‘理性’的逻辑”。它是传统帝国主义暴力的本质之所在，它以冰冷的器械和严苛的律令迫使对象臣服于其淫威之下。而后者通过强化和普遍化前者，反而使自己的统治模式日益内化于对象之中，使“控制实现于灵活、多变的网络系统之中，从而使它的效力范围远超出由各种社会机构构成的架构严整的场所”。当代帝国主义依靠无限战争系统性暴力的无度笼罩、威慑、引导与内化作用，可能做到无需发动物理性军事行动，就使对象陷入无限恐惧之中。在此基础上，当代帝国主义再辅以经济救助、政治庇护和意识形态宣扬等手段，就能轻而易举地使“整个社会机体都由权力机器所构成，并已发展为虚拟状态”。这就是无限战争系统性暴力对被剥削被压迫对象的全面控制。

Third, the violence of infinite war is anonymous.

第三，无限战争的暴力具有匿名性。

Infinite war causes people to overlook contemporary imperialism itself as the true perpetrator or subject of violence. Wood points out that today, “finding and challenging the centers of capitalist power is obviously more difficult — it seems to be everywhere, yet nowhere.” This is what Hardt and Negri describe when characterizing “Empire” as a postmodern paradigm of power: “does not establish a center of power, does not rely on fixed boundaries or limits… within its open, expanding borders, this machine of rule continuously strengthens its integration of the entire global field.” This anonymous violent character is also precisely the image of what Žižek calls the true “Odradek.” “Odradek” is a spool-like creature from the pen of Austrian writer Franz Kafka, whose main characteristics are having no definite external form, no fixed dwelling place, and possessing an enduring lifespan. It may appear in our home for a time, but once we try to approach and speak with it, it disappears without a trace, sometimes remaining unheard of for months. And when we think it has completely left us, it silently returns to our home. Moreover, it has an unending life, so it was once a neighbor to our grandparents and parents, is now our neighbor, and will in the future be a neighbor to our children and grandchildren. Contemporary imperialism, through “Empire”-style or “Odradek”-style infinite war, virtualizes itself to escape spatial constraints and transcend the passage of time, thereby anonymizing itself. Infinite war enables the subject of violence to appear at any spatial corner at one moment and inflict violence on objects, and at another moment to remain silent and watch intently for years or even decades without moving. Thus, an important result achieved by the anonymous violence of infinite war is that the resistance of the vast exploited and oppressed objects ultimately turns into billions of iron fists with nowhere to strike.

无限战争使人们忽略当代帝国主义这一真正的施暴者或暴力主体。伍德指出，在今天，“找出并挑战资本主义的力量中心显然更加困难——它似乎无处不在，却又处处不在”。这就是哈特和奈格里在描述作为一种后现代权力范式的“帝国”时所说的“不建立权力的中心，不依赖固定的疆界和界限……在其开放的、扩展的边界当中，这一统治机器不断加强对整个全球领域的统合”。而这种匿名性暴力特质同时也是齐泽克意义上真正的“奥得拉岱克”(Odradek)的形象。“奥得拉岱克”是奥地利作家弗兰兹·卡夫卡(Franz Kafka)笔下的一个线轴般的生灵，其主要特点是没有确定的外在形体，没有固定的居住场所，拥有持久的生命长度，它可能一时出现在我们家中，可一旦我们想要靠近与其交谈，它就会消失得无影无踪，时而数月都杳无音讯。而当我们以为它已经彻底离我们远去之时，它却又悄无声息地回到了我们家。此外，它拥有永不终结的生命，所以它曾是我们祖辈父辈的邻居，如今是我们的邻居，未来也将成为我们子子孙孙的邻居。当代帝国主义通过“帝国”式或“奥得拉岱克”式的无限战争，虚拟化自身以逃脱空间的束缚并超越时间的流转，从而将自身匿名化。无限战争使暴力主体能够时而出现在任何一个空间角落并向对象施加暴力，时而又一连数年乃至数十年不动声色、凝神注视。可见，无限战争的匿名性暴力所达成的一个重要结果，就是使得广大被剥削被压迫对象的奋起反抗最终化作了亿万双无处着力的铁拳。

In summary, infinite war essentially belongs to the category of objective violence in Žižek’s sense. Its existence and operation are by no means merely the result of a momentary evil thought by a few individuals, but rather the outcome of imperialism’s systematic selection and mutation in the contemporary international political and economic environment to adapt to the further expansion of capital logic. It can be said that the violence of infinite war integrates objectivity, systemicity, and anonymity. This violence is “the foundational systemic violence inherent in capitalism.”

综上所述，无限战争本质上从属于齐泽克意义上客观暴力的范畴，其存续和运作绝不仅仅是少数个体的一时歹念所致，而是帝国主义在当代国际政治经济环境中为适应资本逻辑的进一步扩展而系统化选择和异变的结果。可以说，无限战争的暴力集客观性、系统性和匿名性为一体，这种暴力是“内在于资本主义的基础性系统暴力”。

IV. Infinite War and the Inner Operation of Capital Logic

四、无限战争与资本逻辑的内在运作

For feudalist and capitalist states before the first half of the 20th century, their core demand was to expand their own political power and borders and to expand colonial territories through naked war and violent means. For contemporary imperialism, military war is only used as an important auxiliary means to achieve specific political and economic goals, and in form it presents new models and new patterns dominated by infinite war. At the same time, capital logic becomes the dominant element hidden behind. The capital logic here refers to the molecular accumulation of capital spread across global time and space, which aims to help the empire gain leadership and hegemonic status through controlling and utilizing capital. Moreover, the operation of capital logic is no longer the naked exploitation of the era of Marx and Lenin; it has changed the form of exploitation. As Žižek points out, the operation of contemporary capital and the mode of exploitation of its surplus value have taken on a new form, namely the form of the psychoanalytic object a (surplus enjoyment): “The economy is not only one of the fields of political struggle, but also the ‘cause’ of the mutual contamination-expression between struggles… The economy is object a, that elusive object which sustains this contamination.” This form precisely echoes the specter-like characteristics of infinite war, thereby constructing the logical foundation of the edifice of contemporary imperialism.

对于20世纪上半叶之前的封建主义和资本主义国家而言，其核心诉求在于以赤裸裸的战争和暴力手段扩大自身政治权力和边界，扩张殖民领地。对于当代帝国主义而言，军事战争则只是作为达成其特定政治经济目标的重要辅助手段使用，且在形式上呈现为以无限战争为主的新模式和新样态，同时，资本逻辑成为隐匿背后的主导要素。这里的资本逻辑指的是遍布全球时空的资本的分子化积累，它旨在通过控制和利用资本帮助帝国取得领先和霸权地位。不仅如此，资本逻辑的运作也不再是马克思和列宁时代那种赤裸裸的剥削，它变换了剥削的形式。正如齐泽克所言，当代资本的运作及其剩余价值的剥削方式采取了新形态，即精神分析的对象a(剩余快感)的形态：“经济不仅是政治斗争的场域之一，而且是斗争间互相污染—表述的‘原因’……经济是对象a, 即那个维持着这种污染的难以捉摸的对象。”这一形态恰好与无限战争的幽灵特性遥相呼应，从而建构了当代帝国主义大厦的逻辑根基。

First, the driving force and ultimate purpose of infinite war remain capital logic.

第一，无限战争的动力来源和最终目的仍为资本逻辑。

Unlimited war is supported by capital as its operational foundation, and in turn opens up new territories for capital. Although these two represent different dimensions of the power logic of contemporary imperialism, they “do not operate in isolation from each other, but are interconnected within specific spatiotemporal contexts.” [11]11 The phrase “triumphal march” (凯歌) is a metaphor for a victorious song or celebration, here used ironically to describe the perceived success of the collaboration between capital and military power in imperialism. Through its complicity with the logic of capital, unlimited war sounds the “triumphal march” of contemporary imperialism. Taking the United States as an example, on the one hand, unlimited war requires a strong economic base as its backing. In peacetime, the United States continuously displays its military force and deterrence to the world through exercises, demonstrations, troop deployments, and other actions, while also launching military strikes when “necessary.” However, maintaining such a model of unlimited war requires powerful capital strength as its support. According to preliminary estimates, the operating costs of U.S. aircraft carriers in 2021 alone exceeded the annual military expenditures of more than 95% of the world’s countries or regions. In 2022, U.S. military spending accounted for nearly 40% of the global total. On the other hand, through the deterrence and symbolic strikes of unlimited war, arms dealers can sell large quantities of weapons, and industrial capital receives substantial orders. This enables the United States to further extract various resources and surplus value, strengthen the model of unlimited war, and thereby maintain and consolidate its own hegemony. In this way, the logic of capital and unlimited war can mutually reinforce each other, forming a certain “benign” cycle of interests, and further strengthening the hegemonic position of the United States as a super-empire. The logic of capital and unlimited war in contemporary imperialism are always fatefully intertwined, which also powerfully confirms the predictions of Marx and Lenin. Although Marx did not explicitly put forward a critical theory of imperialism, in the section on “The Modern Theory of Colonisation” in *Capital*, Marx had already clearly pointed out the intrinsic connection between the logic of capital and military violence: “Where the capitalist has the power of the mother country behind him, he tries to use force to clear out of the way the modes of production and appropriation based on the independent labor of the producer.” Lenin also pointed out: “A certain relationship is established between capitalist alliances on the basis of the economic division of the world; and, simultaneously and in connection with it, a certain relationship is established between political alliances, between states, on the basis of the territorial division of the world, the struggle for colonies, and the ‘struggle for economic territory.’”

无限战争以资本为行动支撑，又为资本开疆拓土，两者尽管是当代帝国主义不同维度的权力逻辑，但却“并非相互孤立地运作着，而是在特定的时空背景下彼此关联”。无限战争通过与资本逻辑的共谋演奏着当代帝国主义的“凯歌”。以美国为例，一方面，无限战争需要以强大的经济基础为后盾。在和平时期，美国通过演习、示威、驻军等行动不断向世界展示其武力和威慑力，同时又在“必要”时实施军事打击。然而，维持这样一种无限战争的模式需要强大的资本力量做后盾。据初步估算，2021年美国航空母舰的使用费用，就已超过全球95%以上国家或地区全年的军费开支。而2022年美国的军费占全球军费总额的近四成。另一方面，通过无限战争的威慑和象征性打击，军火商可以大量出售武器，工业资本获得大量订单，这使美国得以进一步攫取各种资源和超额剩余价值，强化无限战争模式，从而维护和巩固自身霸权。如此，资本逻辑与无限战争就可以相互促进，形成某种“良性”的利益循环，并进一步强化了美国这个超级帝国的霸主地位。当代帝国主义的资本逻辑与无限战争始终命定般地交织在一起，这也有力地证实了马克思和列宁的预见。尽管马克思并未明确提出关于帝国主义的批判理论，但在《资本论》的“现代殖民理论”一节中，马克思已经明确地指出了资本逻辑与军事暴力的内在关联：“在资本家有宗主国的力量作后盾的地方，资本家就企图用暴力清除以自己的劳动为基础的生产方式和占有方式。”列宁也指出：“资本家同盟之间在从经济上瓜分世界的基础上形成了一定的关系，而与此同时，与此相联系，各个政治同盟、各个国家之间在从领土上瓜分世界、争夺殖民地、‘争夺经济领土’的基础上也形成了一定的关系。”

Second, the logic of capital behind unlimited war and its mode of operation have undergone significant changes.

第二，无限战争背后的资本逻辑及其运作方式发生了明显的变化。

Contemporary capital has broken with the brutal primitive accumulation model of traditional capitalism and, in a certain new way, has moved exploitation from the front stage to the backstage. This new method is what Žižek calls the mode of *objet a*. *Objet a* is an important concept in Lacan’s later psychoanalytic theory, also referred to as “surplus enjoyment.” The formulation of this concept benefited from Marx’s theory of “surplus value.” In Marx, surplus value is generated in the process of labor production, being the difference between the value created by the worker’s labor and the wage paid to the worker. According to Lacan’s definition, *objet a* is something “in you more than you,” and its relationship with the subject can be represented by the formula (<>a), where represents the castrated subject. Unlike the subject of modern philosophy, it is not the subject that governs or determines surplus enjoyment; rather, surplus enjoyment constitutes the subject’s desire-cause. *Objet a* is the leftover or void resulting from the failure of the subject’s desire or the non-realization of desire. Precisely because the subject’s desired object fails, the subject, like a moth drawn to a flame, ceaselessly pursues its desired object and constantly changes it. Thus, *objet a* is the product of the subject’s eternal pursuit of a failed desired object; it is the leftover of failure. Consequently, the subject must constantly seek substitutes to fill the gap or void left by this failure. *Objet a* has the following two characteristics: (1) As a leftover, *objet a* is invisible and intangible, a residue of what cannot be seen within the symbolic order. (2) Although *objet a* is silent, it possesses immense energy, like a cosmic “black hole,” constituting the subject’s desire-cause.

当代资本打破了传统资本主义残酷的原始积累模式，并以某种崭新的方式将剥削从台前移到幕后，这种新方式就是齐泽克所谓对象a的方式。对象a是拉康后期精神分析理论的重要概念，也被称之为“剩余快感”,这一概念的提出得益于马克思的“剩余价值”学说。在马克思那里，剩余价值是在劳动生产过程中产生的，是工人劳动创造的价值与其工资报酬之间的差额。而根据拉康的界定，对象a是某种“在它之中而非它”(in you more than you)的东西，其与主体之间的关系可以用公式(<>a)来表示，其中代表被阉割的主体。与近代哲学主体不同，不是主体统摄或决定剩余快感，而是剩余快感构成了主体的欲望—成因。对象a是主体欲望失败或欲望没有实现的剩余物或空缺。正由于主体欲望对象的失败，所以主体会飞蛾扑火般地不断追逐其欲望对象，并不断地变换其欲望对象。可见，对象a是主体永恒追寻的欲望对象的失败之产物，是失败之剩余，因而，主体必须不断地寻找替代品来填充失败所留下的这个空缺或空洞。对象a有如下两个特点：(1)作为一种剩余，对象a看不见摸不着，是象征秩序下不可洞见之物的残留。(2)对象a虽然悄无声息，但它却像宇宙“黑洞”一样，拥有巨大的能量，构成了主体的欲望—成因。

Žižek believes that capital in the contemporary era follows the logic of *objet a*, increasingly exhibiting a tendency towards invisibility, manifesting as a trend of moving from the real to the virtual. Since the decline of Keynesianism and the prevalence of neoliberalism in the 1970s and 1980s, this trend has become more pronounced: traditional industrial capital or productive capital has accelerated its transformation in form, moving towards its “highest and most abstract form of expression”—financial capital. At the same time, the rapid advancement of science and technology has provided technical support for the digital development of contemporary capital, also causing the form of currency to move from tangible paper money to intangible digital currency, and the form of commodities from tangible physical goods or offline consumer services to intangible virtual goods or online consumer services. However, the increasing invisibility of contemporary capital has not eliminated or slowed the pace of capital expansion; on the contrary, it has accelerated the process of capital accumulation and valorization, and constitutes the foundation of the unlimited war model of contemporary imperialism. This is consistent with Marx’s thesis that the economic base determines the superstructure. The only difference is that contemporary capital has retreated from the front stage to the backstage, operating and functioning in the manner of the psychoanalytic *objet a*; that is, its mode of existence is no longer macroscopic but has become a mode of hidden dissemination. In this way, capital inherently contains an irreconcilable fissure, namely, “in it more than it,” or, it is “both within it and overflowing it.” Although capital as *objet a* is hidden in the backstage of society, it is not content with this “silent” mode of existence; it must “stir up trouble” to manifest its own existence. Therefore, capital as *objet a* will display its power through the model of unlimited war. In the 21st century today, contemporary capital, through the form of financial capital and the technology of digital currency, has injected abundant momentum into the model of unlimited war. In fact, this mode of operation of contemporary capital as *objet a* has indeed sustained the state of “unlimited war” of imperialism and, in the short term, prolonged the survival cycle of imperialism. However, it must be pointed out that this mode of operation of contemporary capital cannot change Lenin’s judgment on the fate of imperialism made over a century ago: “Imperialism is the transition of capitalism, or more precisely, it is dying capitalism.” Of course, this judgment does not mean that imperialism will immediately perish, but rather that capital operating in the mode of *objet a* has provided an “economic base” for the continuation and prosperity of capitalism in the short term, temporarily delaying its process of decline.

齐泽克认为资本在当代遵循着对象a的逻辑，它愈益呈现出隐形化的倾向，表现为去实向虚的变化趋势。自20世纪七八十年代凯恩斯主义式微和新自由主义大行其道之后，这种趋势更为明朗化：传统产业资本或工业资本纷纷加速了形态的改变，即向着其“最高级也最抽象的表现形式”——金融资本转化；同时，突飞猛进的科学技术为当代资本的数字化发展提供了技术性支撑，也使得货币形态从有形的纸币走向无形的数字货币，商品形态从有形的实物商品或线下消费服务走向无形的虚拟商品或线上消费服务。然而，当代资本的日益隐形化，不仅没有消弭或减缓资本扩张的步伐，反而加速了资本积累和增殖的进程，并构成了当代帝国主义无限战争模式的基础。这一点与马克思有关经济基础决定上层建筑的论断相一致，唯一的区别在于，当代资本从前台遁入了后台，以精神分析的对象a的方式在运作并发挥作用，即它的存在方式不再是宏观的，而变成了隐匿的散播的方式。如此，资本就内在地包含着一个难以弥合的裂隙，即“在它之中而非它”,或者说，它“既在其中而又溢出其外”。作为对象a的资本虽然隐匿于社会之后台，但其不会满足于这种“悄无声息”的存在方式，而是一定要“兴风作浪”来彰显自身的存在。因此，作为对象a的资本会通过无限战争的模式来显现其威力。在21世纪的今天，当代资本借助于金融资本的形态和数字货币的技术为无限战争的模式注入了充盈的动力。实际上，当代资本这种对象a的运作方式的确维系了帝国主义“无限战争”的状态并在短期内延长了帝国主义的生存周期。但必须指出的是，当代资本的这一运作模式并不能改变一个多世纪以前列宁对帝国主义命运的论断：“帝国主义是过渡的资本主义，或者更确切些说，是垂死的资本主义。”当然，这一论断并非意味着帝国主义会即刻走向消亡，而是说这种以对象a的方式运作的资本在短期内为资本主义持续和繁荣提供了“经济基础”,暂时延缓了其走向灭亡的进程。

In summary, the unlimited war of contemporary imperialism and the logic of capital behind it are not contradictory to Marx’s principles of political economy and historical materialism. More precisely, the changes in contemporary capital and its mode of operation are merely a psychoanalyzed variant of the capital of Marx’s era in the 21st century.

综上所述，当代帝国主义的无限战争及其背后的资本逻辑，与马克思的政治经济学原理和唯物史观并不矛盾。更准确地说，当代资本及其运作方式的变化不过是马克思那个时代的资本在21世纪加以精神分析化的变种。

V. Conclusion

五、结语

Owing to the enormous changes in the world political and economic situation in the new century and the heavy costs or price to be paid for direct colonial territory, the dominant mode of war of contemporary imperialism has shifted from traditional colonial war to infinite war. Infinite war is characterized chiefly by its spectral quality: it neither limits the duration of war nor sets a military objective; it neither prescribes the means of war nor defines the object and spatial scope of war; it is always, like a specter, lingering yet elusive. At the same time, this spectral character signifies that the violence of infinite war is in essence an objective violence, which, by being deeply embedded within the vast and complex organism of contemporary imperialism, renders violent catastrophe objectified, systematized, and anonymized. Hence it not only eliminates a great many potential forces of resistance but also pushes the world into an abyss of infinite terror. However, as a contemporary product of capitalism, no matter how imperialism transforms the form of its war, it can never shake off its inner connection with the logic of capital. The infinite war of contemporary imperialism is driven by imperial capital and serves imperial capital. Therefore, only by overthrowing the capitalist system can infinite war be eliminated. As Lenin said: “War springs from the very essence of capitalism; it will cease only when the capitalist system no longer exists, or when the enormous loss of manpower and resources caused by the development of military technology, together with the popular indignation aroused by armaments, brings about the collapse of that system.” [12]12 V. I. Lenin, “The War and the Russian Social-Democratic Labour Party,” *Lenin Collected Works*, vol. 21 (Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1964), p. 27. The original Chinese quotation in the text is from *Lenin Collected Works*, Chinese edition, vol. 21 (Beijing: People’s Publishing House, 1959), p. 171. Facing the great changes in the world in the twenty-first century, opposing the hegemonic logic of imperialism in order to achieve the goal of safeguarding world peace and realizing a community with a shared future for mankind has become a new task of the era. (Notes omitted)

由于新世纪世界政治经济形势的巨大变化和直接殖民领土所要付出的重大成本或代价，当代帝国主义的主导战争模式由传统殖民战争转向了无限战争。无限战争以幽灵性为主要特征，它既不限制战争的时长，也不设置战争的军事目的，它既不规定战争的手段，也不明确战争的对象和空间影响，它始终如幽灵般挥之不去但又难以捉摸。同时，这种幽灵特性又表征着无限战争的暴力本质上是一种客观暴力，它通过深刻镶嵌于当代帝国主义庞大繁杂的机体之内，使得暴力灾难被客观化、系统化和匿名化。因此，它不仅消弭了大量可能的反抗力量，更将世界推进了某种无限恐惧的深渊。然而，作为资本主义的当代产物，无论帝国主义的战争如何演变其形态，它始终无法摆脱与资本逻辑的内在关联。当代帝国主义的无限战争由帝国资本推动，又为帝国资本服务。因此只有推翻资本主义制度，才可以消除无限战争。正如列宁所言：“战争导源于资本主义的本质，只有在资本主义制度不再存在的时候，或者在军事技术的发展所造成的人力和财力的巨大损失以及军备所引起的民愤使这种制度趋于灭亡的时候，战争才会停止。”当下面对21世纪世界之大变局，反对帝国主义的霸权逻辑，以达至维护世界和平和实现人类命运共同体之目的，更已成为新的时代课题。（注释略）

(About the authors: Kong Ming’an, Professor and Doctoral Supervisor at the School of Marxism, Nankai University; Chen Yu, 2020-class Doctoral Candidate at the School of Marxism, Nankai University)

（作者简介：孔明安,南开大学马克思主义学院教授、博士生导师;陈宇,南开大学马克思主义学院2020级博士研究生）

Online editor: Zhang Jian

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