The Imperial Tense: Prospects and Problems of American Empire

by Andrew J. Bacevich

Does the United States today preside over a global empire? America's emergence as the world's dominant power in the 1990s nurtured the perception―initially more pronounced abroad than at home―that with the passing of the cold war the United States had indeed become an imperial republic. Some observers, convinced that American power is necessarily benign, welcome that new reality. Others are not so sure. In The Imperial Tense , Andrew Bacevich has drawn together a stimulating collection of arguments on a subject of compelling current importance. Since September 11 and the ensuing “war on terror,” President Bush's sweeping rhetoric and national security strategy has affirmed the imperial nature of American foreign policy, provoking concerns over where those ambitions may lead. What is the nature and scope of the American empire? What are its prospects and challenges? Is American power adequate for the task of managing a global imperium? And what of will―are the American people prepared to pay the price that the preservation of that empire may demand? The Imperial Tense offers cogent reflections on these and related questions by leading scholars and commentators, including Mr. Bacevich (who has also written the Introduction), James Chace, Stanley Hoffmann, Charles Krauthammer, Charles Maier, David Rieff, Deepak Lal, John Milbank, Jonathan Freedland, Peter Bender, Martin Walker, Perry Anderson, Jedediah Purdy, G. John Ikenberry, Stephen Books, William Wohlworth, David Marquand, David North, Gabriel Ash, Ivan Eland, and Victor Davis Hanson.

Genres: Politics, History

288 pages, Paperback

First published September 25, 2003

About the author

Andrew J. Bacevich, a professor of history and international relations at Boston University, retired from the U.S. Army with the rank of colonel. He is the author of Washington Rules: America's Path to Permanent War and The Limits of Power: The End of American Exceptionalism and The New American Militarism. His writing has appeared in Foreign Affairs, The Atlantic Monthly, The Nation, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Wall Street Journal. He holds a Ph.D. in American Diplomatic History from Princeton University, and taught at West Point and Johns Hopkins University prior to joining the faculty at Boston University in 1998. He is the recipient of a Lannan Award and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

http://us.macmillan.com/author/andrew...

Reviews

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

A mixed bag, a collection of essays from all points on the political spectrum about American empire - military, economic, and/or cultural; past/present/future; whether there even is one (only one author denies it, in a masterful feat of disingenuity) and whether it's a plus or a minus for the world. I give Andrew Bacevich the highest marks possible for even-handedness; he has argued his own views crisply, forcefully, and eloquently elsewhere, but here he writes an introduction and then lets all perspectives be heard. Some are fairly rabidly far-left or far-right, most not quite as much so; a few even seem to have followed the data to find their conclusions rather than cherry-picking history to support the ideologies that comfort them.

This was written and published just before the 2003 invasion of Iraq, and some of the writers speculated about whether that would happen and how it would turn out if it did. The events of less than a year later showed some to have called it accurately and others to have been off; the one possibility none addressed was that the whole WMD argument was a red herring.

Some sound sillier than others, particularly the author of "What Empire?" My sneaking hunch is that Bacevich simply let them have as much rope as they wanted and if they used it to hang their own credibility out to dry so be it, and he probably had some ideas who would come across as more and who as less reasonable and forthright.

Although it's been nearly a decade - more than a decade since a number of the essays were written - this book is still relevant and well worth reading for anyone interested in national and world politics, economics, war, and the uses of power in our world.

[Kenny · Rating 3 out of 5]

This collection of essays covers many different visions and versions of American empire. It is quite illuminating in as far as it goes, however, I believe it requires an updated edition due to current global circumstances.

[Christopher · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book attempts to answer a recent question that has been on the minds of many intellectuals for the past few decades: Does America exercise an imperial power over the world? The editor, Bacevich, attempts to gather a wide range of views and writers to ponder this question. For the most part, Bacevich has failed to publish a convincing examination on the American empire. While all but one agree that the America has some sort of empire, the views seem so homogenous at times that it is hard to figure out where any one disagrees with someone else. The four part scheme that Bacevich tries to implement is rather weak as it seems some essays could have easily fallen under one part rather than the one it actually is in, and some could haven have been fallen under more than one part. There were also some essays, like Victor Davis Hanson's "What Rome?" and John Milbank's "Sovereignty, Empire, Capital and Terror," that were so far to the left and right of the political spectrum to be absolutely repugnant. The only essay that really stands out is Jedidiah Purdy's "Universal Nation." The other essays, much like the book itself, are somewhat outdated or not convincing enough.

[Jay · Rating 3 out of 5]

i really liked the articles by david reiff.