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"AMERICA
AS EMPIRE:
GLOBAL LEADER OR ROGUE POWER?"
No
one can argue credibly that America today is not an empire. Militarily,
economically, and culturally the United States wields a hegemonic
influence unparalleled in world history. This fact has crucial
ramifications for the future course of global affairs. The United
States is truly the “hyper-power,” but the current system
in which its power is being wielded is in a state of breakdown.
If American power is to survive for any great length of time,
then America must exercise truly visionary leadership to reform
the existing world order.
In "America As Empire: Global Leader or
Rogue Power," State of the World Forum President, Jim
Garrison tackles what is perhaps the most important question of
our time: What kind of empire will America be? To answer that
question, the author traces the history of the United States within
the context of the rise and fall of other great empires. He argues
that important insights into the nature and durability of the
American empire can be gained by looking at the Roman Empire,
particularly the interplay between its military power, political
institutions, and legal structures; a balance of power that enabled
the Romans to flourish for millennia.
Garrison argues that the current Bush administration’s imperial
adventures are simply the culmination of long-standing trends
in American history. America as Empire convincingly shows that
the avoidance of “foreign entanglements” was a myth
from the very day that Washington uttered the words in his famous
Farewell Address. From the beginning, America did not hesitate
to send its armed forces to other countries to defend it’s
two primary—and sometimes contradictory—foreign policy
goals: promotion of U. S. commercial interests and encouragement
of representative democracy. Garrison asserts that America has
emerged as the strongest nation in the history of the world precisely
because it was able to reconcile these pragmatic and idealistic
concerns, and was willing to advance them with whatever military
might was at its disposal.
Dr. Garrison asserts that as the sole superpower, America must
lead in shaping a new global order, an undertaking similar in
scale to the efforts that Franklin Roosevelt and his successor
Harry Truman undertook in shaping the post World War II international
world order. This order, based on a balance of power between sovereign
nation-states, stood for some fifty years, but is now crumbling
under the pressures of globalization, persistent international
poverty, terrorism, religious fundamentalism, and American foreign
policy itself as practiced by the current Bush administration.
Garrison concludes his book by calling on Americans to consciously
see their country as a transitional empire, one whose task is
not to dominate but to catalyze the next generation of global
governance mechanisms that would make the need for empire obsolete
and a historical anachronism. In short, he calls on America to
be the empire to end all empires.
“Garrison has provided a thoughtful analysis of why America
became the strongest nation in history and what responsibilities
lay ahead for our nation.”
—George Soros, Chairman, Soros Fund Management
“Garrison, who has devoted much of his career to exploring
the emergence of a new international system with the end of the
cold war, offers a comprehensive examination of the idea of an
American empire. His is a balanced, thoughtful, yet intellectually
passionate contribution to the debate over American power and
America's role in the world.”
—Strobe Talbott, Deputy Secretary, U.S. Department
of State (1993-2001); President, Brookings Institution
“The essential choice for America, as Bill Clinton has put
it, is whether to strive to be permanent top dog on the block—or
rather to use its current enormous power to help create a world
in which it will be comfortable living when it is no longer top
dog on the block. Jim Garrison's book makes a compelling case
for the second answer.”
—Gareth Evans, Australian Foreign Minister (1988-1996);
President, International Crisis Group
James Garrison is president of the State of the World Forum, a
San Francisco-based non-profit institution created in 1995 to
establish a global network of leaders dedicated to discerning
and implementing those principles, values, and actions necessary
to guide humanity toward a more sustainable global civilization.
He is the author of The Plutonium Culture, The Darkness
of God: Theology After Hiroshima, The Russian Threat: Myths
and Realities, The New Diplomats, and Civilization
and the Transformation of Power.
"America as Empire: Global Leader or Rogue Power?"
By Jim Garrison
Published by Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc.
ISBN: 1-57675-281-X
Cloth $24.95
Number of Pages: 240
Publication Date: February 2004
