Blending the tools and approaches of transnational history with those of the new imperial history provides the opportunity to trace transimperial interactions among empires, complementing the integrated vertical relations within empires with horizontal relations among them (Hedinger and Heé, 2018). Such relations occurred between states and imperial administrations but also above (international organizations and multinational companies) and below (individual mobilities, interpersonal relationships, commercial ventures) the level of the state. Attention to transimperial connection, collaboration, and competition not only presents a more comprehensive model of imperial relations (both within and among empires); it also refigures geopolitical dynamics by dismantling assumptions of Euro-American hegemony. Indeed, transimperial history is a polycentric history, in which bilateral and multilateral relations among varied empires draw new geopolitical maps and trace new paths of influence.

The four author-panelists have each published books since 2022 on the dynamics of empire in transimperial and comparative frameworks. Of particular interest will be their wide-ranging expertise on late-Ottoman imperialism, the global inspirations for Chinese statemaking in its borderlands, the paradoxes of the Soviet anticolonial empire, and the competitive emulation that defined European empires in Africa. Thus, the panelists are well-prepared not only to discuss how each empire engaged with shared concepts of space, geopolitics, and imperial institutions in a transimperial and comparative framework, but also to draw connections among their fields of expertise to sketch a truly global approach to transimperial history in the modern era.

The moderator, an expert practitioner and theorist of transimperial history, will take an active role and will ask questions that inspire conversation among the panelists, allowing for productive comparison of varied forms and sites of imperialism. The moderator will pose four questions. First, in what ways were the putatively territorialized imperial spaces under consideration transimperial? Second, in what ways are the panelists’ transimperial perspectives similar or different to global history? Third, what new knowledge about individual empires emerges from a transimperial approach? Fourth, how should we theorize the geopolitics of modern empires in the context of transimperial cooperation and competition?

The roundtable format will maximize interaction among the panelists, the expert moderator, and the audience. The moderator will pose the above questions and allow the panelists to respond in the first half of the panel, followed by ample time for questions and discussion from the audience.