ABSTRACT
Nation states must be at the centre of Marxist theories of internationalisation because nation states are critical in determining the commensurability of capital in its international movement, and also as a means to preclude the automatic presumption that nation states' policies are inherently nationalistic. Capital takes three different forms in the process of accumulation: money, production, and commodities. There are two primary functions and a secondary function of the state, in relation to the accumulation of capital. The two primary functions are: securing the labour system, and securing the money system. The mobility of money capital has added continuity to international accumulation which makes general 'laws of uneven development' and structured 'world systems' less satisfactory as a depiction of the pattern of accumulation. With the value of labour power determined nationally, but prices of production determined internationally, there is a contradiction within the value system.
