Colossus: The Rise and Fall of The American Empire (Paperback)

The liberal empires (first the British empire and now, somewhat reluctantly, the American empire) are guided by the principle of the spread of liberal values across the globe. They are motivated by the desire to bring responsible representative government to countries in which it does not exist, to engender respect for the rule of law, create the stability needed for economic growth and encourage the peaceful coexistence of nations. Ferguson decisively rejects the Hobson theory of empire as some quasi mafia style protection racket run by elites in the imperial core.

Looking at the historical record, Ferguson argues that imperial status has done a great deal of good. The stability thereby created enhances the colonial state's credit ratings, thus allowing it to borrow and service its debts more cheaply than countries outside the imperial system. Also the guarantee of intervention by the imperial power in cases where the colony is threatened or otherwise in difficulty promotes further stability and positive attidues to the future, so necessary for investment and growth. This is backed up by statistical argument that growth rates within the British empire were superior to those of the same countries once outside the imperial framework.

This book is however about America. Following the British Empire's decline, the Americans slipped into the role of system hegemon, adopting responsibility for developing favourable political climates in countries falling under its influence. Thus the likes of Japan, Germany and Korea were transformed from dictatorships into vibrant market economies with healthy growth rates, high standards of living and respect for the rule of law. He argues that Empire is not a money-spinner in itself - in fact the normal running costs of maintaining standing armies are high - but that the principal benefit comes from increased stability, and hence greater international integration, trade, growth and prosperity.

The complaint underlying all of this is that, according to Ferguson, America is yet to acknowledge its role as the new imperial power. It is reluctant to commit its forces in the long term to any country, it tries to leave as soon as circumstances permit, rather than (as say the British in Egypt) linger on trying to condolidate the liberal values it promotes. Moreover, American elites (again in contrast to their British counterparts of the last century) are unwilling to spend their entire careers, or even lives, in some far-flung outpost of empire in the service of the imperial system. This all goes together to make the US an "empire in denial" which de facto ends up having to behave like an empire, but lacks the political conviction to see through its policies to the end.

A particularly fascinating part of this book is the analysis of the current world financial system based on the dollar as the almost universal reserve currency. American spending is essentially bankrolled by the East Asian economies, which run a huge trade surplus with the US. Thus while this makes the US vulnerable to creditors calling in their dollar debts, at the same time the resulting shock in the US in terms of consumption may have strong reverberations in Asia. Thus this precarious balance maintains America's status as a paradoxical debtor empire (in contrast to the capital exporting British empire).

A few qualms to add to this otherwise rosy review. Ferguson does tend to cherry pick examples which support his view of benign empire, ignoring those which do not fit in with the scheme of liberal empire. Ferguson often cites the venture in the Philippines, but is rather more reticent on the blood-stained details of the US occupation. Some other questions: Why for example did the US bankroll the Indonesian regime committing acts of genocide in East Timor, continuing to sell it weapons for the duration of an invasion which left up to 30% of the pre-war Timorese population dead? Why should a liberal empire support a sanctions policy against Iraq which led to over 1,000,000 excess deaths over 10 years? Why did a liberal empire interested in establishing the rule of law support the mafia in 1940s Italy and rig the 1948 elections? Why did a liberal empire overthrow the Arbenz government in Guatemala? Why did a liberal empire support the Suharto coup in Indonesia which led to the murder of 1,000,000 communists? Was it necessary to kill these people in order to save them from communism? Just how liberal is this sort of Empire? This is not of course to say that America is a great Satan, far from it, but a review of its foreign policy needs to be nuanced enough to account for these different and often contradictory policies towards the third world. In always focusing on positive aspects of US power, Ferguson's account risks one-dimensionality.

Nonetheless recommended reading. It's not his best book but it's comfortably in the same league as Empire and the Cash Nexus.