The US is not an Imperial power. After reluctantly being drawn into WW2, the US overran opposing forces, and then, unlike any other nation in history, actually

The US is not an Imperial power. After reluctantly being drawn into WW2, the US overran opposing forces, and then, unlike any other nation in history, actually invested to help rebuild those entities to be the most free and prosperous places on planet earth. Democratic, liberal institutions, high standards of living. General MacArthur literally gave women in Japan the right to vote (or rather, facilitated it) and restored a better democracy in Japan than had ever existed. This is not the action of an Imperial power. The USSR was an Imperial Power, the US is a Superpower. The USSR's relationship with Belarus, Latvia, Poland etc. are examples of real Imperial power one that happened to be based on a supposed ideology more than anything else. The US's relationship with Japan, South Korea and Germany for example, is obviously not Imperialist. The US keeps the high seas open, the Suez/Panama Canal open for everyone, even military adversaries, let alone economic competitors. An Imperial power would control those assets and extract wealth out of them directly. Now - to be fair, this is somewhat self-serving, as the US benefits quite a lot from stability and trade. They make a lot more money selling iPhones and coffee from Starbuck's. Even the UK Empire was only borderline Imperial. They were big on trade, the colonies enjoyed quite a bit of autonomy. It rose on the basis of the Industrial Revolution - which was fundamentally driven by an underlying economic system, not a political one. True Imperialism would be for example the Roman Empire. It's obviously not all roses, I wouldn't imply that, but the US is not a good example Imperialism.