Colossus

I'm afraid this post is going to be slightly nerdy.

There is a famous, and somewhat controversial Scottish historian who teaches at Harvard and holds a chair at NYU named Niall (pronounced Neal) Ferguson. Ferguson is something of a hybrid academic, focusing on history, political science, finance/economics and other disciplines. He is known for his books on subjects as diverse as the Rothschild family, the British Empire, the intersection of money and political power in his book The Cash Nexus, and most recently a book titled Colossus; The Rise and Fall of the American Empire. I've read Ferguson's articles before and I really like him, not just because I am a huge geek about this sort of thing, but because Ferguson engages in what is known as counter-factual history, where one makes a claim 'what if...' and then examines the possible consequences. One of his famous and controversial claims is that Europe, and maybe the world at large, would have been better off had Great Britain never gotten involved in the First World War. I must admit, I don't know too much about this particular theory, but it has to do with the costs and benefits of allowing Germany to acquire limited territory in a continental war and having it lead to a free, liberalized Weimar Republic. But I digress, my main point here is the contentions Ferguson makes in Colossus. Ferguson's claim is that in America, it's fine for liberals to call the United States an empire, as long as you hate the fact that it is. For conservatives, it is acceptable to act like America is an empire, as long as you never call it one. Ferguson says this is silly, and that people should embrace American imperialism, contending that historically, the world benefits from an enlightened empire. The major benefits of a strong but benevolent empire are: relative lack of world wars, spreading of free market economics, and development of manifestly underdeveloped regions. Ferguson points to examples of Germany and Japan, where an American influence, which was interventionist and one might argue imperialist, had an overwhelmingly positive impact and has created democratic and economically stable societies. The difference between Germany/Japan and what is currently being called American imperialism in Afghanistan/Iraq is that now, the United States is trying to nation-build on the cheap and by proxy. In order for these things to work, Ferguson claims, the country needs a strong and sustained US presence with US personnel building the institutions needed for real democratic reforms. In Germany and Japan, occupations lasted for 7-8 years, and now American politicians and voters are only willing to devote 18-24 months, and then expect to hand off the new country to natives with little or no experience with democracy. Ferguson contends that America is going about this all wrong, and will have to reconcile the fact that the United States IS an empire, and has acted like an empire since its inception (a little thing called Manifest Destiny is textbook imperialism, as is extending influence into Latin America.)

If you have no friends and are interested in the interface between finance/economics and supranational empire building, Colossus is for you.