Interesting article with some different thoughts on the whole Empire debate. Check it out here.

Personally I think the US is currently an Empire, but slightly different than the classical definition. It’s a country that exterts power through economic pressure and the underlying threat of military force. When a country is faced with a demand from the US, the inevitable thoughts going through their minds are:

1. How will they affect us economically? Will they still trade with us? Trade more with us? Sanction us?
2. Will they invade us? Will they bomb us? Will they align themselves with one of our unfriendly neighbours?

This is still an empire, even though territorial expansion has not been sought until recently. The occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan are still intended to extert influence in the region whether or not you believe the US will have a permement physical presence there.

The results? These are the last gasps of an Empire that is being faced with it’s own dwindling influence. They are desperate moves to reshape the world into a favorable form before the true emergence of other regions of the world. I’ve said this before – part of me can’t wait until China and India begin to match the US in terms of power. This is for the sole reason that any influence to balance the current tendencies of the US will be a good thing.

I just hope someone else as crazy as Bush is not in power when that time comes. When faced with the prospect of being a non-supreme-power the influence of the neocons and the PNAC would be a devastating combination. The PNAC clearly considers themselves above the rest of the world, so I imagine they would not be content to share the stage. The thought that comes to mind is “the war to end all wars.”