The terms “imperialism” and “colonialism” have reentered the collective vocabulary with a vengeance in recent years. But they seem to mean different things to different people, who mix and match differing ideas from Marxist, liberal, and postcolonial theories.

At a recent conference in Germany, Socialism in Our Time, organized by Jacobin and Transform! Europe, Alexander Brentler spoke with Vivek Chibber, professor of sociology at New York University, about past attempts by Marxists to theorize imperialism and what a coherent account of the phenomenon must offer today. In both his books Locked in Place and Postcolonial Theory and the Specter of Capital, Chibber deals, among other things, with imperialism and colonialism from different angles. In his view, Marxist accounts of imperialism are still best suited to explain the state of the world, both economically and geopolitically. But there are still missing pieces, especially when it comes to understanding the world that has emerged since the end of the Cold War.