The Empire

A college friend of mine went off to work in Germany after graduation. While there she met a European and married him. Like her, though, he is not German--he's Irish. I was fortunate to visit with this lovely (and quite international) couple while they were seeing family in the United States recently.

As my friend's husband and I were talking the conversation naturally brushed on politics. He was all too eager to jump right in. As he is a European I expected to hear from him the stereotypical European perspective on America as an evil, malevolent force in the world that seeks to destroy all that is good and decent. Indeed, he started the conversation by calling America "the Empire".

But quickly it became clear that his analysis was not the stereotypical European one. Indeed, he sees America as an empire, but his view of how America behaves as such was striking.

Before getting to his perspective, let's define an empire. A textbook definition might be (from wikipedia): "a state that extends dominion over areas and populations distinct culturally and ethnically from the culture/ethnicity at the center of power." If that definition is correct, I would disagree that America is an empire (solely because of the word "dominion", which by definition means sovereign governing authority). However, if we change "dominion" to "influence" there is no question that the United States meets that definition.

When most people think of the word "empire" they likely imagine Napoleon or Genghis Khan or the Romans or the Brits--all people who used military force as their sole means of imposing authority. The word brings with it every sort of negative connotation imaginable, and understandably so.

With that as the backdrop, and as I heard him call America "the Empire", I was surprised when it became clear that his analysis of America was roundly positive. His basic point was this: of all the empires that have ever existed, the United States of America is the most benevolent, most kind, most magnanimous one in the history of the world.

If anything, according to his argument, Americans are too benevolent, allowing heavy criticism of our role and actions without adequately defending ourselves against Euro/world criticism.

Certainly his argument is biased by his marriage to an American. While living abroad, many of the volleys lobbed generally at America end up being aimed specifically at his bride.

Nevertheless, his perspective was refreshing. When I suggested to him that the American "Empire" was more economic than anything else he used my statement as an example of the American "uberhumility" that is the problem. In his view America is the only super power and has used such power for greater good in the world than has any other empire than has ever existed. Further, Americans should not be ashamed of this, but should draw attention to this fact.

Certainly, America's influence is helped along by the fact that we have the largest nuclear arsenal in the world, and that we can have Marine boots on the ground anywhere in the world within 24 hours (that may be an insult to our military infrastructure). Yet the U.S. does not seek sovereign governing authority over other countries generally. We do not force the French, Japanese, or Chinese to accept our culture. We do not force American television or movies on Latin America. We do not roll in tanks when Iran protests and burns our flag/vestiges. When American culture is adopted by other nations it is because they choose to do so, not because they are forced to do so.

America may well be an empire, but if this is the empire of the globalized world we may need to throw out many of the connotations that come with that word.