Book: Hegemony or Suvival: America's
Quest for Global Dominance.
Chapter 2 Imperial Grand Strategy [p. 11 - 49]
What is the main idea of this chapter?
- "... by fall 2002 was the declared intention
of the most powerful state in history to maintain its hegemony
through the threat or use of military force. ... the doctrine
dismisses international law and institutions as of 'little
value' " [p. 11]
- "The new imperial grand strategy presents the United
States [as] a revisioinist state seeking to parlay its
momentary advantages into a world order in which it runs
the show,' prompting others to find ways to 'work around,
undermine, contain and retaliate against U.S. power." The
strategy threatens to 'leave the world more dangerous and
divided - and the United States less secure." [p. 11-12]
Structure of the chapter:
- Enforcing Hegemony
- New Norms of International Law
- The Rule of Law
- International Law and Institutions
- Elite Concerns
- Intentional Ignorance
Enforcing Hegemony
- "The imperial grand strategy asserts the right of the
United States to undertake "preventive ware" at will. ...
Preventive war falls within the category of war crimes."
[p. 12]
- "Some defenders of the strategy recognize that it runs
roughshod over international law but see no problem in
that." [p. 13]
- "Hence the refined version of the grand strategy effectivley
grants Washington the right of arbitrary aggression."
[p. 14]
- "Contempt for international law and institutions was
particularly flagrant in the Reagan-Bush years. ... the
US reserved the right to act 'unilaterally when necessary,'
including the 'unilateral use of military power' to defend
such vital interests as 'ensuring uninhibited access to
key markets, energy supplies, and strategic resources.'
" [p. 15]
New Norms of International Law
- "From the first moments of the propoganda offensive,
it was apparent that the pronouncements lacked credibility.
'This administration is capable of any lie ... in order
to advance its war goal in Iraq." [p. 18]
- "The government-media propoganda assault had its effects.
Within weeks , some 60 percent of Americans came to regard
Saddam Hussein as 'an immediate threat to the US' ... at
home it succeeded brilliantly in linking the war on Iraq
with the trauma of September 11." [p. 18]
- "After the invasion of Iraq was declared a success, it
was publicly recognized that one motive for the war had
been to establish the imperial grand strategy as a new
norm. ...'we will not hesitate to act alone, if necessary,
to exercise our right of self-defense by acting pre-emptively,'
now that the norm has been established." [p 21]
- "Peoples and regimes will have to change the way they
see the world 'from a view based on the United Nations
and international law to one based on an identification'
with Washington's agenda." [p. 21]
- "The Kosovo bombing in particular is understood by distinguished
authorities to have established the norm or resort to force
without Security Council authorization." [p. 22]
- There have been two examples of intervention by force
to stop huge atrocities:
- India's invasion of East Pakistan in 1971
- Vietnam's invasion of Cambodia in 1978
The Rule of Law
- "The grand strategy extends to domestic US law. ... the
Bush administration claimed, and exercised, the right to
declare people - including US citizens - to be 'enemy combatants'
or 'suspected terrorists' and to imprison them without
charge or access to lawyers or family ..." [p. 26]
- "The Red Cross strongly protested the refusal of the
US command to allow it access to prisoners of war, in violation
of the Geneva Conventions, and to captured civilians."
[p. 27]
- "Analogies have been drawn to the darkest days of McCarthyism,
but these new proposals are more extreme. The plan also
extends powers of surveillance without court authorization,
permits secret arrests, and further protects the state
from the scrutiny of citizens." [p. 27]
International Law and Institutions
- " 'The primacy of law over force that has been a major
thread of American foreign policy since the end of World
War II' disappears from the new strategy. Also 'all but
disappeared' are the international institutions 'that extend
the reach of law' ... From now on, force reigns, and the
US will exercise that force as it sees fit." [p. 28]
- " ... 'the national interest,' a technical term referring
to the special interests of domestic sectors that are in
a position to determine policy." [p. 29]
- :When the UN fails to serve as 'an instrument of American
unilateralsim' on issues of elite concern, it is dismissed."
[p. 29]
- "France's threat to veto a UN declaration of war was
bitterly condemned. ... In general, threat of veto by others
is a scandal, revealing the 'failure of diplomacy' and
the miserable behavior of the UN. ... Routine resort to
the veto by the world champion is generally ignored or
downplayed." [p. 31]
- "... for much of the world the US is 'becoming the rogue
superpower, [considered] the single greatest external threat
to their societies.' ... coalitions might arise to counterbalance
the rogue superpower, with threatening implications." [p.
37]
Intentional Ignorance
- "But to reassure ourselves that the powerful are motivated
by 'elevated ideals' and 'altruism' in the quest of 'stability
and rightousness' we have to adopt the stance called 'intnetional
ignorance' " [p. 43
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