Cascoly - Amazon: Bookstore American Empire

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Cascoly - Amazon Bookstore
After the American Century

Last revised: 16 April 2006

The 20th is often referred to as the American Century - The United States burst through its isolationist cocoon and emerged as a late bloomer in the imperialist marathon by provoking the Spanish-American War and acquiring Hawaii. World War I exhausted the Europeans and left the United States in a powerful position as the only industrial country untouched by war. Over the next 70 years, the US pushed backs threats from the right [aka Nazism and World War II] and the left [ aka the Cold War] to emerge in the last decade of the 20th century as the sole superpower. But like the struggles of the successors to Alexander the Great, that Long War [as Philip Bobbit describes it in Shield of Achilles], the position may be a brief one. In fact, a strong argument can be made that the United States has already reached its apogee and the only question remaining is how steep the decline will be. By most common standards the US slips further behind - whether health care, education, productivity per worker, social welfare, balance of trade, national debt, etc. It only maintains the lead in weapons of mass destruction, especially the nuclear ones, and that leads to scary scenarios.

Some books that directly discuss the American Empire include

Kevin Philips - American Dynasty

Rogue Nation – American Unilateralism and the Failure of Good Intentions

The comparison between British imperialism and America's role in the world has often been made, but the common retort is that America can't be an empire since it has no colonies. Instead, the American empire is one of influence in many countries —sometimes exercised by the threat of force, more often though a mix of economic sanctions and inducements. It does not govern any of these countries and it has little political control over them. Of course, the Soviet collapse increased globalization especially in Asia. Western primacy is nearing the end of ts run. China and India are rising to threaten the development by the US of a traditional empire. So, rather than colonies, we have serial relations with various ruling classes, often at odds with the American proclamation of democracy for all.

John Gray [NYRB January 12, 2006 ] expands on this:

European imperialists made a long-term commitment to the territories they annexed. They spent large parts of their lives immersed in the cultures of the countries they had colonized, learning the languages and often forging enduring alliances with local rulers. As well as subjugating and exploiting their colonies they also ruled and lived in them. .... Nevertheless, the close familiarity of some of these colonial rulers with the languages, histories, and ruling classes of the colonies made possible a degree of political control over them that went far beyond anything that could be achieved by military force alone...

However, America's relations with most of the countries in which it stations troops are not long-term relationships of the kind cultivated by the Romans and the Persians. America's presence is conditional on the shifting pattern of American interests and the contingencies of American politics. When any American overseas military involvement becomes too costly or unpopular it is likely to be abruptly terminated. ... long-term alliances with local ruling classes of the kind that enabled empires to endure for centuries in the past are seldom possible....

.The invasion and occupation of Iraq may not have produced anything resembling a colonial administration, but it has allowed the expropriation of the country's oil reserves. ...America remains critically dependent on the depleting oil reserves of the Gulf at a time when demand is rising inexorably in China and India. Faced with this situation the US has reverted to classical geopolitics. Its forces are in central Asia, in such countries as Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, to secure American interests in the current rerun of the Great Game in which it is in competition with other countries for the region's energy resources. American forces serve the same strategy in the Gulf. ..

As a result of the Bush administration's intervention in Iraq the dissolution of America's global hegemony that is an integral part of the process of globalization has been accelerated, perhaps by a generation. The United States will continue to be pivotal, but it cannot expect its interests or its values to be accepted as paramount. We are moving into a world in which peace will depend on concerted action by several great powers. In these circumstances a revival of realist thinking is overdue. Global security is not served by launching messianic campaigns to export democracy. Nor is it advanced by pursuing a mirage of empire, which even now is melting away.