Abstract
RATHER THAN INTERNATIONALIST REGIMES REPLACING THE centuries-old institution of the nation-state, many critics have observed a more sinister development: the inexorable expansion of an American imperium. This perspective has attracted further support since the advent of the 2001 war on terrorism, but it had advocates in the post—Cold War era of intervention and even during the Cold War. Connecting the United States to the Roman Empire of antiquity has been popular for some time, and the recent clash with the neighboring civilization of Islam has renewed interest in this comparison.1 In addition, comparisons to the British Empire have been popular as well, although as one prominent author on the topic noted, few outside of the intelligentsia articulate an image of the United States having emerged as a new global empire.2 Cold War—era explorations frequently debated the hegemonic role of the United States, or, when comparing the American system to earlier empires, debates were in the context of the decline versus the expansion or persistence of American power.3
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Notes
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© 2008 Matthew J. Morgan
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Morgan, M.J. (2008). American Empire. In: The American Military After 9/11. The Day that Changed Everything?. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230610156_9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230610156_9
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