Empire and Imperialism and the USA
By James Petras
09/09/08 "ICH"
-- - Modern empires and therefore imperialism which
constructs them are ubiquitous: Whether through large-scale
multinational corporations or through technologically
advanced massive military power, the peoples and nations of
the worlds confront the problem of great concentration of
corporate and state power on an unprecedented scale. This
stark reality and the evidence of US prolonged wars of
conquest and occupation has forced a general recognition of
the relevance of the concept of imperialism to understanding
global power relations. Only a decade ago writers,
intellectuals and academics discarded imperialism and empire
in favor of ‘globalization’ – to describe the world
configuration of power. But globalization with its limited
focus on the movement of multinational corporations could
not explain the centrality of the state in establishing and
imposing favorable conditions for the ‘movement’ or
expansion of multinationals. Corporate globalization could
not explain wars of conquest, like the first Gulf War, or
wars of occupation or colonization, such as the US invasions
of Iraq and Afghanistan. Nor could globalization explain the
large-scale, long-term expansion of Chinese public
corporations throughout Africa and the vast extraction of
raw materials and sale of finished goods. By the new
millennium, the language of empire even entered the
vocabulary of the Right, the practitioners and ideologues of
imperialist power. Contemporary imperial conflicts had their
effects: Imperialism and empire once again became common
language on the Left, but in many cases poorly understood,
at least in all of its complexities and structures.
This essay clarifies some of the basic theoretical and
practical features of contemporary imperialism, which are
poorly understood. There are at least five major aspects of
the political economy of imperialism that focus our
attention in this book:
(1) Imperialism is a political and economic phenomenon. The
multinational corporations (MNC) operate in many countries,
but they receive their political support, economic subsidies
and military insurance from the imperial state (IS)
concerned with the MNC. The IS negotiates or imposes trade
and investment agreements favorable to the MNC. At the same
time the IS uses the MNC to influence overseas regimes to
concede military bases and submit to its sphere of
influence. Imperialism is the combined forceful overseas
expansion of state and corporations.
(2) There are multiple forms of empire building. While all
imperial states possess military and economic apparatuses,
the political and economic driving force behind the
construction of a global empire vary according to the nature
of the governing class of the imperial state. In the
contemporary world there are essentially two types of empire
building – the US military-driven empire building and the
Chinese economic empire. The US governing class today is
made up of a powerful militarist-Zionist ideological elite,
which prioritizes war and military force as a way of
extending its domination and constructing client/colonial
regimes. China and other newly aspiring economic empire
builders expand overseas via large-scale, long-term overseas
investments, loans, trade, technical aid and market shares.
Obviously the US militarist approach to empire building is
bloodier, more destructive and more reprehensible than
market-driven empire building. However the structure of
power and exploitation, which result from both types of
empire, is a political-economic system, which oppresses and
exploits subject peoples and nations.
(3) Imperialism has multiple interacting facets, which
mutually reinforce each other: The mass media and culture in
general are weapons for securing consent and/or acquiescence
of the masses in pursuit of empire building which prejudices
their material and spiritual existence. Imperialism cannot
be isolated and reduced to simple economic reductionism.
Economic exploitation is only possible under conditions of
subjective subordination and that refers to education,
entertainment, literature and art as terrains of class
relations and class struggle linked to the empire.
(4) The social, ideological and political loyalties of the
political elite, which direct the imperial state, determines
the tactics and strategy which will be pursued in empire
building. One cannot automatically assume that the political
leadership will prioritize the interests of the MNCs in
every region of the world at all times. When imperial
leadership has divided loyalties with another state imperial
policies may not coincide with the interests of the MNCs.
Under these special circumstances of rulers with divided
imperial loyalties, the ‘normal’ operations of the imperial
state are suspended. The case of Zionist power in the US
imperial state is a case in point. Through powerful and
wealthy socio-political organizations, representation on
powerful Congressional committees and strong presence in
senior Executive offices (Pentagon, State Department,
National Security Council, Homeland Security, Justice,
Treasury) and the mass media, the Zionist elite dictates US
Middle East policy. The US military serves Israeli
colonial-expansionist interests even at the expense of the
major US oil companies which are prevented from signing
billion-dollar oil contracts with Iran and other oil-rich
countries at odds with Israel.
(5) The world of competing imperial countries has created
complex international organizations, which conflict, compete
and collaborate. They operate on all levels, from the global
to the cities and villages of the Third World. Imperialist
powers enter and exploit through a chain of collaborator
classes from the imperial center through international
organizations to local ruling, economic and political
classes. The imperial system is only as strong as its local
collaborators. Popular uprisings, national anti-colonial
struggles and radical mass movements, which oust local
collaborators, undermine the empire. Anti imperialists
attempt to establish diverse ties among imperial competitors
and among the newly emerging powers to isolate the US
military-centered empire.
James Petras is a retired
Bartle Professor (Emeritus) of Sociology at Binghamton
University, SUNY, New York, U.S., and adjunct professor at
Saint Mary's University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada who
has published prolifically on Latin American and Middle
Eastern political issues.
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