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Lessons of Empire: Imperial Histories And American Power
In the shadow of America's recent military involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan, distinguished historians of empires and noted international relations specialists consider the dirty word "empire" in the face of contemporary political reality. Is "empire" a useful way to talk about America's economic, cultural, political, and military power? This final volume in the Social Science Research Council "After September 11" series examines what the experience of past empires tells us about the nature and consequences of global power. How do the goals and circumstances of the United States today compare to classical imperialist projects of rule over others, whether for economic exploitation or in pursuit of a "civilizing mission"? Reviewing the much contested history of domination by Western colonizing powers, Lessons of Empire asks what lessons the history of these empires can teach us about the world today.
342 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2006
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November 2, 2021
Distinctions in forms of power include: imperial (intervening in a polity without governing it), hegemonic (setting the rules of the game that others must follow) and colonial (governing internal affairs of a subordinated polity).
In this book, the contributors apply the analytic insights that arise from the study of particular empires or political/historical situations to the United State's role in the world today, also wish to historicize the very idea of "American empire" and stress that question of whether or not the United States is an empire. Empire histories suggest not the evolution of bounded societies that can be compared, but the consolidation and dissolution of structures of power in relation to each other - a pattern still relevant today. World politics is increasingly a matter of biopolitics, "in which what is directly at stake in power is the production and reproduction of life itself".
Real power is vested in markets for capital as well as cultural production and other kinds of immaterial labor, all of which transcend international borders. The terms of politics are not static and that policies which take a world power deeply into the affairs of another state will likely have repercussions far beyond their intended objective. Empire like nation-state is best understood as a historically constructed state form that combines both objective and subjective elements. Empire in particular is a form of domination or control, between two units set apart in a hierarchical, inequitable relationship, more precisely a composite state in which a metropole dominates a periphery to the disadvantage of the periphery.
Whereas, imperialism is the deliberate act or policy that furthers a state's extension or maintenance for the purpose of the aggrandizement of that kind of direct or indirect political or economic control over any other inhabited territory which involves the inequitable treatment of those inhabitants in comparison with its own citizens or subjects. The aim of the American war in Iraq was to change the pillars of US policy in the Middle East. The US needed as an ally a major petroleum producer in the Persian Gulf that could offer military and naval bases, could moderate the price of petroleum in favor of the West and could serve as a springboard for growing US influence in the region. The US had lost Iran, which played many of these roles to the Khomeinist revolution in 1979.
Iraq's potential for daily oil production could equal that of Saudi Arabia in the long term, and so it could play the role of helping keep petroleum affordable for the industrialized west. The real reason for the war on Iraq was therefore to replace Saudi Arabia as an oil ally with Iraq, to marginalize Riyadh and combat the alleged effects of its Wahhabi proselytizing and to create new 'secular' Shiite allies in the region who might prove useful in combating Khomeinism in Iran and the Lebanese Hizbullah. Saudi Arabia will continue to be the most influential oil state, because of its impressive ability to be a swing producer (it can produce as much as 11 million barrels a day, but could survive economically on 7 million barrels a day; only an average of 76 million barrels a day are produced worldwide).
Al-Qaeda and allied terrorist threats were not countered by the invasion of Iraq and it is possible that they will have been given a new field to play on. US control usually operates through indirect political or economic influence, support for friendly local regimes and seemingly universalistic rules of exclusion from the community of 'decent nations' - the excursion of violators of free trade, freedom of movement and more recently human rights. There are four 4 of empires:
1. Classical (or non modern) territorial, land-based empires
2. Modern territorial empires
3. Colonial empires
4. Imperialism, a system of control of far-flung areas without territorial annexation
'Development' was clearly going to be a disaster for people on the world's periphery, where it would primarily mean the maximal export of natural resources at minimum cost. The starkest sign of the current extremity of American power is the sharpness of the line it draws between who must and must not be counted, recognized, individualized, rendered human and rightful. The leaders of agrarian empire in China achieved their successes without any of the ideas about democracy and modern political ideas so many people in the world today believe in deeply. Yet, they managed to recognize that their subjects had interests that they had to address at the same time as they sought to persuade them to accept certain beliefs and practices.
Empire was never a simple reflection of a single function or interest, and imperial domains did not always have equal standings. Empire is a complex formation: some parts of it are slated for some purposes, while others for very different ones. In the American empire, Guam and Samoa were supposed to serve a distinct function indeed. They were primarily seized as coaling and naval stations to facilitate America's rising naval power in the Pacific. 1898 continues to shape historical memories and the political imagination for both Cuba and Spain. What began for both countries as an unparalleled disaster that provoked organizing social searching now works as the pivot in histories of national redemption.
Memories of 1898 not only define national histories but also histories of empire: Cubans see the revolution of 1959 as a blow against the Yankee (USA) imperialism of 1898, while Spaniards have used their own language of empire in the service of anti-imperialism, protecting US policies towards Cuba and more recently almost universally opposing the war in Iraq. America needs to use its vast resources to organize global politics more successfully but that a coercive attempt to roll up then system in the name of global democracy will be self-defeating. More promising could be a system of consensual domination in which America's coercive power is used selectively for purposes that enjoy broad legitimacy and are actively supported by local, regional and multilateral institutions.
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In this book, the contributors apply the analytic insights that arise from the study of particular empires or political/historical situations to the United State's role in the world today, also wish to historicize the very idea of "American empire" and stress that question of whether or not the United States is an empire. Empire histories suggest not the evolution of bounded societies that can be compared, but the consolidation and dissolution of structures of power in relation to each other - a pattern still relevant today. World politics is increasingly a matter of biopolitics, "in which what is directly at stake in power is the production and reproduction of life itself".
Real power is vested in markets for capital as well as cultural production and other kinds of immaterial labor, all of which transcend international borders. The terms of politics are not static and that policies which take a world power deeply into the affairs of another state will likely have repercussions far beyond their intended objective. Empire like nation-state is best understood as a historically constructed state form that combines both objective and subjective elements. Empire in particular is a form of domination or control, between two units set apart in a hierarchical, inequitable relationship, more precisely a composite state in which a metropole dominates a periphery to the disadvantage of the periphery.
Whereas, imperialism is the deliberate act or policy that furthers a state's extension or maintenance for the purpose of the aggrandizement of that kind of direct or indirect political or economic control over any other inhabited territory which involves the inequitable treatment of those inhabitants in comparison with its own citizens or subjects. The aim of the American war in Iraq was to change the pillars of US policy in the Middle East. The US needed as an ally a major petroleum producer in the Persian Gulf that could offer military and naval bases, could moderate the price of petroleum in favor of the West and could serve as a springboard for growing US influence in the region. The US had lost Iran, which played many of these roles to the Khomeinist revolution in 1979.
Iraq's potential for daily oil production could equal that of Saudi Arabia in the long term, and so it could play the role of helping keep petroleum affordable for the industrialized west. The real reason for the war on Iraq was therefore to replace Saudi Arabia as an oil ally with Iraq, to marginalize Riyadh and combat the alleged effects of its Wahhabi proselytizing and to create new 'secular' Shiite allies in the region who might prove useful in combating Khomeinism in Iran and the Lebanese Hizbullah. Saudi Arabia will continue to be the most influential oil state, because of its impressive ability to be a swing producer (it can produce as much as 11 million barrels a day, but could survive economically on 7 million barrels a day; only an average of 76 million barrels a day are produced worldwide).
Al-Qaeda and allied terrorist threats were not countered by the invasion of Iraq and it is possible that they will have been given a new field to play on. US control usually operates through indirect political or economic influence, support for friendly local regimes and seemingly universalistic rules of exclusion from the community of 'decent nations' - the excursion of violators of free trade, freedom of movement and more recently human rights. There are four 4 of empires:
1. Classical (or non modern) territorial, land-based empires
2. Modern territorial empires
3. Colonial empires
4. Imperialism, a system of control of far-flung areas without territorial annexation
'Development' was clearly going to be a disaster for people on the world's periphery, where it would primarily mean the maximal export of natural resources at minimum cost. The starkest sign of the current extremity of American power is the sharpness of the line it draws between who must and must not be counted, recognized, individualized, rendered human and rightful. The leaders of agrarian empire in China achieved their successes without any of the ideas about democracy and modern political ideas so many people in the world today believe in deeply. Yet, they managed to recognize that their subjects had interests that they had to address at the same time as they sought to persuade them to accept certain beliefs and practices.
Empire was never a simple reflection of a single function or interest, and imperial domains did not always have equal standings. Empire is a complex formation: some parts of it are slated for some purposes, while others for very different ones. In the American empire, Guam and Samoa were supposed to serve a distinct function indeed. They were primarily seized as coaling and naval stations to facilitate America's rising naval power in the Pacific. 1898 continues to shape historical memories and the political imagination for both Cuba and Spain. What began for both countries as an unparalleled disaster that provoked organizing social searching now works as the pivot in histories of national redemption.
Memories of 1898 not only define national histories but also histories of empire: Cubans see the revolution of 1959 as a blow against the Yankee (USA) imperialism of 1898, while Spaniards have used their own language of empire in the service of anti-imperialism, protecting US policies towards Cuba and more recently almost universally opposing the war in Iraq. America needs to use its vast resources to organize global politics more successfully but that a coercive attempt to roll up then system in the name of global democracy will be self-defeating. More promising could be a system of consensual domination in which America's coercive power is used selectively for purposes that enjoy broad legitimacy and are actively supported by local, regional and multilateral institutions.
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July 9, 2013
Mainly like the pieces by Emmanuella Saada and Julian Go
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews