Hegemony or Survival: America's Quest for Global Dominance (The American Empire Project) [Hardcover]

Scholarly polemicist Noam Chomsky's latest book Hegemony or Survival argues that America's strategy for the future is nothing less than the maintenance of American hegemony through the use or threat of military force--a strategy that threatens to leave the world a more dangerous and divided place. He goes on to claim that the only other world superpower with any chance whatever of curbing America's ideologically driven quest for global dominance is World Public Opinion. Recent books on American involvement in Middle East affairs, books such as Dilip Hiro's Iraq, Rampton and Stauber's Weapons of Mass Deception, and, more recently, The Guardian sponsored The War We Could Not Stop have also drawn attention to the propaganda war waged upon the American public by the Bush administration. For Chomsky this is by no means a new development. He sees American foreign policy historically showing a remarkably pattern of hypocrisy, racism, exploitation, and cynical manipulation of public opinion by successive US administrations. What is new and disturbing about the events leading up to the invasion of Iraq, he says, is the precedent America and Britain have set for establishing new norms of international law. The concept of "preventative war" must have its victims and those victims must be weak, yet important enough to be worth the trouble. Any country that is opposed to US interests but is capable of defending itself--i.e., those with nuclear capabilities--will be left alone. He leaves us with the terrifying assessment that the clear and catastrophic message to opponents of American hegemony is to get nuclear--quick. It's the only way to keep the bully off our backs.

One of Chomsky's special talent remains his ability to undermine comforting platitudes--such as the idea that we Westerners have become more "humanitarian" over the last few decades or that we have been making steady moral progress. As with Greg Palast's The Best Democracy Money Can Buy, Chomsky's Hegemony or Survival is relentlessly damning of the American political and economic elite and highly sceptical of the idea that virtue is to be found there. But if you're looking for a more balanced and hopeful examination of America's excursion into modern empire building and the problems it poses try Michael Ignatieff's Empire Lite. --Larry Brown --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

"America's greatest dissenter, a one-man cultural revolution whose writing on globalisation has mobilised a generation." --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

"The Elvis of academia" --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

"His writings are among the few essential documents of our times" --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From the world’s foremost intellectual activist, here is an irrefutable analysis of America’s pursuit of total domination and the catastrophic consequences that are sure to follow. The United States is in the process of staking out not just the globe, but the last unarmed spot in our neighbourhood – the skies – as a militarized sphere of influence. Our earth and its skies are, for the Bush administration, the final frontiers of imperial control. In Hegemony or Survival, Noam Chomsky explains how we came to this moment, what kind of peril we find ourselves in, and why our rulers are willing to jeopardize the future of our species. In our era, Chomsky argues, empire is a recipe for an earthly wasteland. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Noam Chomsky is the author of numerous bestselling political books, including, most recently, 9-11 and Understanding Power. He is a professor in the Department of Linguistics and Philosophy at MIT, and is widely credited with having revolutionized modern linguistics. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.