Tuesday, June 24, 2003
EMPIREWATCH: ANATOL LIEVEN
The Nation online has a lengthy essay by leftist scholar Anatol Lieven ( whose ideological sympathies may be read in his warm endorsement for the discredited ideas of Immanuel Wallerstein, who bet his academic career on the decline of America and lost) on " empire ". As usual, Lieven gets most things wrong but aside from this article being one of his less shrill efforts he does manage to hone in on a critical truth:
" This is indeed likely to be seen by future historians as the central tragic irony of the Bush Administration's world policy: that the United States, which of all states today should feel like a satisfied power, is instead behaving like a revolutionary one, kicking to pieces the hill of which it is king. "
The Bush foreign policy is indeed a revolutionary one - to rewrite the rules of the international world order to better comport with the advancement of liberal democracy, capitalism, and individualism and contain the threats posed by powerful technologies in unsafe hands and outlaw regimes. Most of those lining up against the Bush doctrine want a world organized around Social Democratic statism managed by transnational bodies that will contain, direct and " legitimize " American power for elite purposes. ¶ 8:59 AM
The Nation online has a lengthy essay by leftist scholar Anatol Lieven ( whose ideological sympathies may be read in his warm endorsement for the discredited ideas of Immanuel Wallerstein, who bet his academic career on the decline of America and lost) on " empire ". As usual, Lieven gets most things wrong but aside from this article being one of his less shrill efforts he does manage to hone in on a critical truth:
" This is indeed likely to be seen by future historians as the central tragic irony of the Bush Administration's world policy: that the United States, which of all states today should feel like a satisfied power, is instead behaving like a revolutionary one, kicking to pieces the hill of which it is king. "
The Bush foreign policy is indeed a revolutionary one - to rewrite the rules of the international world order to better comport with the advancement of liberal democracy, capitalism, and individualism and contain the threats posed by powerful technologies in unsafe hands and outlaw regimes. Most of those lining up against the Bush doctrine want a world organized around Social Democratic statism managed by transnational bodies that will contain, direct and " legitimize " American power for elite purposes. ¶ 8:59 AM
