Pitzer College Joe Parker
Post-World War II
Bacevich, Andrew. American Empire: The Realities and Consequences of US Diplomacy . Harvard University Press, 2003. Major conservative commentator characterizes US imperialism under Bush 41 and Clinton as imperialism by persuasion, which differs from Bush 43's reliance on force.
Brzezinski, Zbigniew. The Grand Chessboard . Basic Books, 1997. Former national security advisor (1977-81) and major U.S. policy geopolitical strategist argues that U.S. is an imperial power and must remain so to keep order in the world.
Boot, Max. The Savage Wars of Peace: Small Wars and the Rise of American Power . Basic, 2003. Major polemicist for the right and editorial writer for The Wall Street Journal surveys history of US interventions from 1801 to the present to argue for unabashed US imperialism.
Buchanan, Patrick. A Republic, Not an Empire . Regnery Pub., 1999. Major U.S. conservative commentator argues against U.S. imperialism from perspective of isolationist nationalism.
Bush, George Herbert Walker. “The National Security Strategy of the United States of America,” Washington: National Security Council, 2002. Argues for basic policies of pre-emptive diplomacy see n as characterizing a new aggressive phase in US imperialism. Available at www.whitehouse.gov /nsc/nss.html .
Michael Hudson, Super Imperialism: The Origin and Fundamentals of U.S. World Dominance , rev. ed., Pluto Press, 2003 (1972). Financial economist analyzes ways that U.S. financial diplomacy preserves hegemonic dominance internationally through the design of the World Bank and the IMF, producing U.S. monetary imperialism.
Ignatieff, Michael. “The American Empire: The Burden.” The New York Times Magazine .
Alain Joxe, The Empire of Disorder , Los Angeles: Semiotext(e), 2002.
F oremost French specialist in strategic affairs and warfare a rgue s that current world order is empire of chaos dominated by U.S. and transnational corporations, international mafia, and markets with disastrous consequence s for everybody else .
Kaplan, Robert. “Supremacy by Stealth: Ten Rules for Managing the World,” Atlantic Monthly (July, Aug., 2003): p. 65-83. Major U.S. journalist specializing in the Middle East makes unabashed argument for US empire despite contradictions with US democracy and the consequent need to operate secretly in order to pursue global domination.
Mullaby, Sebastian, “The Reluctant Imperialist: Terrorism, Failed States, and the Case for American Empire,” Foreign Affairs 81.2 (Mar./Apr., 2002): 2-7. Argument for U.S. pursuit of global empire in pre-eminent U.S. foreign policy journal.
James Petras and Henry Veltmeyer, Globalization U nmasked : I mperialism in the 21st C entury , Zed Books, 2001.
Wood, Ellen Meiksins . Empire of Capital , Verso, 2003. Historical comparison of US empire to other major world empires demonstrating the specific character of US reliance on economic mechanisms to impose global domination.
Vidal, Gore. Dreaming War: Blood for Oil and the Cheney-Bush Junta . Thunder's Mouth Press, 2002.
Well-known essayist and long-standing opponent of US imperialism gives counter-history that traces the origins of America's current imperial ambitions to the experience of World War Two and the post-war Truman doctrine while skewering the past several administrations.
See also website for the Project for the New American Century, www.newamericancentury.org for influential U.S. conservative project promoting imperialism in U.S. foreign policy.
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Readings:
Globalization and Overseas
Reactions to U.S.Policies—the 9-11-01 attacks.
John
Cooley, Unholy Wars: Afghanistan,
America, and International Terrorism, Pluto Pr., p.
1-8 & 215-41.
Walden
Bello, Dark Victory: The United
States and Global Poverty, rev. ed., Food First Books,
1999 (1994), Ch. 2 & 9-11, p. 7-9 & 86-115.
(See reading guide handout.)