Walt on Empire
Posted on July 13th, 2009
by Jordan Smith |
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Stephen Walt has a characteristically sharp post, “10 Lessons on Empire.”
Which brings to mind one aspect of post-Iraq intellectual life in the United States: nobody is making the case for an American empire anymore. True, hawks have still called for the US military to get involved in everywhere from Burma to Iran, but few are arguing outright that an American empire is itself a good thing.
Back in 2002-03, remember, mainstream commentators were calling for a US version of Pax Romana. Max Boot was typical of that hubristic mindset: “Afghanistan and other troubled lands today cry out for the sort of enlightened foreign administration once provided by self-confident Englishmen in jodhpurs and pith helmets.”
The insurgency in Iraq killed those fantasies off. If nothing else, the war in Iraq has been good for bringing a measure of humility (even if just a measure) to US imperialists. The tragedy is it took a war to do it.
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Regarding the tenth point in Stephen Walt’s post, the Roman Empire by contrast was occasionally willing, under the wiser emperors, to withdraw to defensible (”natural”) borders (the Euphrates, Danube, and Rhine, Hadrian’s wall, etc.) even when capable of projecting their rule beyond them. Possibly the reason it lasted a bit longer than the British Empire, or ours for that matter.