Free Custom «The American Empire» Essay Paper

The American Empire is a term that relates to the Political, Military, Economic and the cultural influence of the United States. The idea of an American Empire was developed and made popular after the end of the Spanish American war in 1898, despite the fact that the founding fathers of the American republic having spoken about the term Empire, the sources and supporters of this idea range form the classical Marxist theories of imperialism as a creation of capitalism, to the modern liberal theorist disagreed to what they termed as the hostile U.S policy. In the development of the American empire, we shall look at the first school of thought; “the Empire of the heart of U.S Foreign Policy”, the second school of thought: “the Empire that never existed” and lastly the third school of thought: the empire was an aberration. In comparison to the past American Empire and the present, the future American Empire is in decline.

First school of thought: "Empire at the Heart of U.S. Foreign Policy"

Both Marxists and the member of the new left see the US imperialism as unprincipled and deep rooted. Historians trace the origin to the Spanish-American war or even to the dislocation of the Native Americans before the American Revolution and exist to date. Historian Sidney in his book argues that “the United States, from the time it gained its own independence, has used every available means political, economic, and military to dominate other nations." (Scott 2010). To both the leftist and the conservatives, a critical historical view is classically carried on to the current US policy. The US filed to change its foreign policies after the Cold War and instead focuses on the objective of expanding its controls across the universe. The United States sole superpower position makes it to be the most dangerous place of imperialist. Most writers and historians of different politics share the notion of the US as an Empire, and describe most of the same policies and institutions as the truth of the existence of the American Empire. There are five theories of US as an Empire namely the liberal theories, the Leninist theories, the social democratic theories, the "Hardt-and-Negri-ite" theories and the theories of Super Imperialism (Scott 2010).