Drawing on theory by Deleuze and others on the structure of hierarchies and networks, the authors seek to reinterpret World Systems Theory in order to engage with issues of power, resistance, and conflict in the contemporary world. The authors engage with the world-systems, contemporary scholarship in global politics, and new concepts: global cities, bifurcations, hegemonic transitions, the relationship between capitalism and the state, the position of East Asia, active and reactive network movements. They develop new theory to interpret empirical cases of resistance and conflict including: Afghanistan, Iraq, anti-terror paranoia, political Islam, specific indigenous and activist movements