American Empire

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• SOURCE: Perspectives on History
  6/14/2023
  

  The Daiquiri is the History of American Empire in a Cocktail

  by Ian Seavey

  "The daiquiri rose to prominence as a direct result of the American imperial project in the Caribbean during the burgeoning classic cocktail age from 1860 to 1920."

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• 6/12/2022
  

  Top-Gunning for Empire

  by Scott Laderman

  "Top Gun: Maverick" is ressurecting the theatergoing experience. Will it do the same for American enthusiasm for the imperial ambitions it represents? 

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• SOURCE: New York Review of Books
  2/3/2022
  

  Who's Afraid of Isolationism?

  by Stephen Wertheim

  It's past time for "isolationism" to stop being a dirty word in discussing America's relationship to the world. The use of the term as a pejorative has justified too many ill-considered military interventions.

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• SOURCE: TomDispatch
  12/21/2021
  

  How Awesome Is “Awesome”? Rating the US Military on Cost-Benefit Terms

  by Andrew Bacevich

  Is it impolite, then, to ask if the nation is getting an adequate return on its investment in military power?

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• SOURCE: TomDispatch
  10/7/2021
  

  Never Having to Say You're Sorry

  by Karen J. Greenberg

  Numerous players with large and small roles in creating the expansive War on Terror have issued mea culpas; the major architects and the interests who profit from war have not. 

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• SOURCE: Boston Review
  10/4/2021
  

  Abandoning Afghans From the Start

  by Christian G. Appy

  The Washington Post's Afganistan Papers present an opportunity to avoid the mistake of blaming military defeat on bad judgment and focus on the inherent problem of America's imperial ambitions, says historian Christian Appy.

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• SOURCE: TomDispatch
  9/28/2021
  

  Droning On: America's Assassins-in-Chief

  by Tom Engelhardt

  Since the Bush administration, every President has used drone technology to be the nation's assassin-in-chief. In a nation increasingly tolerant of mass COVID death at home, does this even have the power to shock?

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• SOURCE: TomDispatch
  9/30/2021
  

  "A Horrible Mistake": Time to Ditch CENTCOM

  by Andrew Bacevich

  Created by military reorganization undertaken by the Reagan administration, CENTCOM assumes control of potential military operations in 20 nations, where a half-billion people live. In the decades of its existence, it has overseen the decline and imminent collapse of American empire. 

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• SOURCE: TomDispatch
  8/19/2021
  

  The All-American Base World

  by Patterson Deppen

  Despite the withdrawal from Afghanistan, there are still 750 US military bases around the world, showing that America's "forever wars" may only be briefly paused. 

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• SOURCE: Foreign Exchanges
  4/26/2021
  

  Necessary but Not Sufficient

  by Daniel Bessner

  The 2001 AUMF in effect has become yet another tool to enable the United States to prosecute a series of endless wars in the Global South.

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• SOURCE: TomDispatch
  3/28/2021
  

  America’s Longest War Winds Down

  by Andrew Bacevich

  Public fatigue over the ongoing War on Terror must not allow political leaders to do what they seem to want most to do: avoid taking responsibility or learning lessons.

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• SOURCE: TomDispatch
  10/18/2020
  

  Reframing America’s Role in the World: The Specter of Isolationism

  by Andrew Bacevich

  The release of Stephen Wertheim's book shoud prompt a reconsideration of American intervention abroad. 

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• SOURCE: Tom Dispatch
  2/25/20
  

  The Paradox of America’s Endless Wars

  by William Astore

  They Persist Because They Don’t Exist (For Americans) 

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• 6/30/19
  

  The Overlooked Story of “the Greater United States”: Historian Daniel Immerwahr Shares His Unique Perspective on American Empire

  by Robin Lindley

  From the Guano Islands to America’s widespread empire now, Professor Immerwahr shares neglected stories from the past showing how inhabitants of America’s possessions have been relegated "to the shadows," and, at various times, have been "shot, shelled, starved, interned, dispossessed, tortured, and experimented on."

• SOURCE: NYT
  3-5-13
  

  Elizabeth Cobbs Hoffman: Come Home, America

  Elizabeth Cobbs Hoffman, a professor of American foreign relations at San Diego State University, is the author, most recently, of “American Umpire.”EVERYONE talks about getting out of Iraq and Afghanistan. But what about Germany and Japan?The sequester — $85 billion this year in across-the-board budget cuts, about half of which will come from the Pentagon — gives Americans an opportunity to discuss a question we’ve put off too long: Why we are still fighting World War II?Since 1947, when President Harry S. Truman set forth a policy to stop further Soviet expansion and “support free peoples” who were “resisting subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures,” America has acted as the world’s policeman....