I’ve thought about this too. My conclusion is that the architects of American Empire spent so much energy obscuring reality that their heirs believed the illusion. The heirs think the postwar US is still a “democracy” or a “country” rather than the greatest empire of all time. https://t.co/Ov8M1jJ9eL
The war brought the United States, as Winston Churchill put it, to the “summit of the world.” It made more goods, had more oil, held more gold, and possessed more planes than all other countries combined. It was, Truman marveled, “the most powerful nation, perhaps, in all history.” But what is less often appreciated is how much territory the United
... See moreThe U.S. geopolitical leadership has shown two faces to the world. One was the U.S. interest in building law-based multilateral institutions, including the global institutions of the UN system and regional institutions such as the European Community (and later European Union), of which the United States was a champion from the start. The other was
... See moreIn Holtom’s eyes, the bases sowed fear. Yet seen in another light, they had a certain glamour. The men posted to them were flush with money and consumer goods. So even as the bases provoked protests, they also stirred other passions.
This is, it’s worth emphasizing, unique. The British weren’t confused as to whether there was a British Empire. They had a holiday, Empire Day, to celebrate it. France didn’t forget that Algeria was French. It is only the United States that has suffered from chronic confusion about its own borders. The reason isn’t hard to guess. The country percei
... See moreThe fact that American power exists without any formal structure indicates that the United States is more powerful than most empires have been, historically. Its empire is not only global but casual.
Not only does the United States continue to hold part of its colonial empire (containing millions), it also claims numerous small dots on the map. Besides Guam, American Samoa, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and a handful of minor outlying islands, the United States maintains roughly eight hundred overseas milit
... See moreAmerican preeminence is based on the fact that it is the only country with the military, diplomatic, political and economic assets to be a decisive player in any conflict in whatever part of the world it chooses to involve itself.
The United States is learning how to be an empire, creating enormous pressures on the world and on American institutions and the American public. Nowhere is this more obvious than in the clumsy management of the eighteen-year war against the jihadists.