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American Empire is a term, often but not always derogatory, used to describe the historical expansionism and the current political, economic, and cultural influence of the United States on a global scale. DEFINITION OF EMPIRE The term " Empire " has two uncontroversial meanings. In one sense, the United States (US) is not an empire, because it lacks a legal Emperor , King , Despot , or other Hereditary Head Of State . In another sense, the US satisfies the definition of an empire, because it possesses Sovereignty over territories which it has not Annexed as states12, and extended its political rule as well as equal voting rights to, such as Puerto Rico , American Samoa , Guam , and the U.S. Virgin Islands . In the past, the US has also held possession of or occupied, in whole or in part, the Trust Territory Of The Pacific Islands (as a League Of Nations Mandate ), Japan & Germany (during military occupation after World War II ), the Philippines (a colonial possession acquired from the Spanish-American War ), and Cuba . Controversy exists over whether the U.S. consistently behaves like an empire across the world, and if it would be accurate to describe it as such. The term Imperialism was coined in the mid-1800s to describe empire-like behavior, carried out by states which might or might not be formal empires.3 It was first widely applied to the US by the American Anti-Imperialist League , founded in 1898 to oppose the Spanish-American War and the subsequent post-war military occupation and brutalities committed by US forces in the Phillipines . The Oxford English Dictionary gives three definitions of imperialism: # An Imperial system of government; the rule of an emperor, esp. when despotic or arbitrary. # The principle or spirit of empire; advocacy of what are held to be imperial interests. # Used disparagingly. In Communist writings: the imperial system or policy of the Western powers. Used conversely in some Western writings: the Imperial system or policy of the Communist powers.4 Debate exists over whether the U.S. is an empire in the politically-charged sense of the latter two definitions. Some, however, argue against the very coherence of the concept. Historian Stuart Creighton Miller argues that the overuse and abuse of the term "imperialism" makes it nearly meaningless as an analytical concept.5 p. 3. Historian Archibald Paton Thorton wrote that "imperialism is more often the name of the emotion that reacts to a series of events than a definition of the events themselves. Where colonization finds analysts and analogies, imperialism must contend with crusaders for and against."6 Political theorist Michael Walzer argues that the term "hegemony" is better than "empire" to describe the US' role in the world.7 AMERICAN EXCEPTIONALISM See Also: American exceptionalism Stuart Creighton Miller points out that the question of US imperialism has been the subject of agonizing debate ever since the United States acquired formal empire at the end of the nineteenth century during the 1898 Spanish-American War . Miller argues that this agony is because of America’s sense of innocence, produced by a kind of " Immaculate Conception " view of America's origins. When European settlers came to America they miraculously shed their old ways upon arrival in the New World , as one might discard old clothing, and fashioned new cultural garments based solely on experiences in a new and vastly different environment. Miller believes that school texts, patriotic media, and patriotic speeches on which Americans have been reared do not stress the origins of America's system of government, that these sources often omit or downplay that the " United States Constitution owes its structure as much to the ideas of John Locke and Thomas Hobbes as to the experiences of the Founding Fathers ; that Jeffersonian thought to a great extent paraphrases the ideas of earlier Scottish philosophers; and that even the unique frontier egalitarian has deep roots in seventeenth century English radical traditions."Miller (1982), op. cit. p. 1. Philosopher Douglas Kellner traces the identification of American Exceptionalism as a distinct phenomenon back to 19th century French observer Alexis De Tocqueville , who concluded by agreeing that the U.S., uniquely, was "proceeding along a path to which no limit can be perceived."8 American exceptionalism is popular among people within the US,9 but its validity and its consequences are disputed. Miller argues that US citizens fall within three schools of thought about the question whether the United States is imperialistic: # Overly self-critical Americans tend to exaggerate the nation’s flaws, failing to place them in historical or worldwide contexts. # In the middle are Americans who assert that "Imperialism was an aberration."Miller (1982), op. cit. p. 1-3. # At the other end of the scale, the tendency of highly patriotic Americans is to deny such abuses and even assert that they could never exist in their country. As a '' Monthly Review '' editorial describes the phenomenon, ::"in Britain, empire was justified as a benevolent 'white man’s burden'. And in the United States, empire does not even exist; 'we' are merely protecting the causes of freedom, democracy, and justice worldwide."10 FIRST SCHOOL OF THOUGHT: "EMPIRE AT THE HEART OF US FOREIGN POLICY" : "Ten Thousand Miles From Tip to Tip" meaning the extension of U.S. domination (symbolized by a Bald Eagle ) from Puerto Rico to the Philippines. The cartoon contrasts this with a map of the smaller United States 100 years earlier in 1798.]] Since the Spanish-American War , Marxists and the New Left tend to view imperialism as an unmitigated obsession. US imperialism, in their view, traces its beginning not to the Spanish-American War , but to Jefferson’s purchase of the Louisiana Territory , or even to the displacement of Native Americans prior to the American Revolution , and continues to this day. Historian Sidney Lens argues that :"the United States, from the time it gained its own independence, has used every available means—political, economic, and military—to dominate other nations."11 Book jacket. Numerous U.S. Foreign Interventions , ranging from early actions under the Monroe Doctrine to 21st-century interventions in the Middle East , are typically described by these authors as imperialistic. Some critics of imperialism have a more positive view of America's early era, however. Prominent conservative writer Patrick Buchanan argues that the modern United States' drive to empire is "far from what the Founding Fathers had intended the young Republic to become."12 p. 165. This latter point of view is often identified with American Isolationism , in the tradition of either the Old Right (Buchanan), or Libertarianism (for example, Justin Raimondo ). . "The American flag has not been planted in foreign soil to acquire more territory but for humanity's sake.", president took place in 1898).]] Lens describes American exceptionalism as a myth, which allows any number of "excesses and cruelties, though sometimes admitted, usually be regarded as momentary aberrations."Lens (2003), op. cit. Book jacket. Linguist and political critic Noam Chomsky argues that it is the result of a systematic strategy of propaganda, maintained by an "elite domination of the media" which allows it to "fix the premises of discourse and interpretation, and the definition of what is newsworthy in the first place, and they explain the basis and operations of what amount to propaganda campaigns."13 This critical historical view is usually continued to present US foreign policy. Historian Andrew Bacevich , drawing on the work of Charles Beard and William Appleman Williams , argues that the end of the Cold War did not mark the end of an era in US history, because US foreign policy did not fundamentally change after the Cold War. US foreign policy has long been driven by the desire to expand access to foreign markets in order to benefit the domestic economy. The moralistic reasons given for American foreign intervention mask the true economic reasons, and Bacevich warns that US economic imperialism (in the guise of Globalization ) may not be in the best interests of the United States.14 This is a common extension of the critique of American empire; Buchanan and, from the opposite side of the political spectrum, prominent writer Tariq Ali , argue independently but similarly that acts of terrorism against the United States, such as the September 11, 2001 Attacks , are the direct result of the U.S.'s ill-fated attempts to help others out of the nation's endless reserve of kindness and goodwill. Ali claims that "the reasons terrorism are really political. They see the double standards applied by the West: a ten-year bombing campaign against Iraq, sanctions against Iraq which have led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of children, while doing nothing to restrain Ariel Sharon and the war criminals running Israel from running riot against the Palestinians. Unless the questions of Iraq and Palestine are sorted out, these kids will be attracted to violence regardless of whether Osama bin Laden is gotten dead or alive."15 Ethnic studies professor Ward Churchill is almost alone, however, in extending this critique further to argue that at least some of the victims of the 9/11 attacks - the " Little Eichmanns " who "formed a technocratic corps at the very heart of the US' global financial empire – the 'mighty engine of profit' to which the military dimension of U.S. policy has always been enslaved" - deserved their fates.16 A different extension is more common; many critics of US imperialism argue, like Marxist sociologist John Bellamy Foster , that the United States' sole-superpower status makes it now the most dangerous world imperialist.17 U.S. military bases abroad as a form of empire |
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