To be or not to be: the United States as an Empire
Abstract
In the modern sense, the notion of “empire” can be understood not as a political unit but as a systemof relationships that may or may not be pursued as a strategy by powerful states. Hence, in order toestablish an imperial relationship, a state needs both power and will. Because the United States has beena relatively powerful country for much of its history, the occasional adoption of imperial strategies musttherefore be explained by variations in willingness. This article maintains that this willingness was clearlypresent in at least three moments in U.S. history: after the Spanish-American War, after World War II,and after 9-11. In each of these cases, the United States faced strong reactions to its imperial strategy –symbolized, respectively by the Philippines, Vietnam, and Iraq – that ended up leading to its subsequentreevaluation.Downloads
Download data is not yet available.
Downloads
Published
2012-06-20
How to Cite
Teixeira, C. G. P. (2012). To be or not to be: the United States as an Empire. Carta Internacional, 7(1), 140–156. Retrieved from https://cartainternacional.abri.org.br/Carta/article/view/53
Issue
Section
Artigos
License
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Atribuição 4.0 Internacional that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book, for example), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.