In Defense of Empire (Robert Kaplan) from Slate
"It can ensure stability and protect minorities better than any other form of order. The case for a tempered American imperialism. ... imperialism is now seen by global elites as altogether evil, despite empires’ having offered the most benign form of order for thousands of years, keeping the anarchy of ethnic, tribal, and sectarian war bands to a reasonable minimum. Compared with imperialism, democracy is a new and uncertain phenomenon."
A very provocative set of arguments forwarded here. It raises for me the critical question: can Woodrow Wilson's vision of "self-determination of peoples" EVER work -- really? It was viewed by Wilson's European leader-colleagues at Versailles in 1918 as utopian, wholly unrealistic, and a recipe for chaos. Were they right?!
"It can ensure stability and protect minorities better than any other form of order. The case for a tempered American imperialism. ... imperialism is now seen by global elites as altogether evil, despite empires’ having offered the most benign form of order for thousands of years, keeping the anarchy of ethnic, tribal, and sectarian war bands to a reasonable minimum. Compared with imperialism, democracy is a new and uncertain phenomenon."
A very provocative set of arguments forwarded here. It raises for me the critical question: can Woodrow Wilson's vision of "self-determination of peoples" EVER work -- really? It was viewed by Wilson's European leader-colleagues at Versailles in 1918 as utopian, wholly unrealistic, and a recipe for chaos. Were they right?!
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