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While the U.S.'s core strength has always been propaganda (they got Operation Paperclip Nazis to becom American patriots, got the USSR to abolish itself, and th
by concinds 4y ago
While the U.S.'s core strength has always been propaganda (they got Operation Paperclip Nazis to becom American patriots, got the USSR to abolish itself, and the young Russian Federation to destroy itself with its infamous "shock therapy"), China also has quite strong propaganda, especially in Africa. And in Europe, go back 30 years and people still saw Americans as liberators; now, Europeans see it as a corrupt third-world country where people can't afford healthcare.
And while it's true that U.S. cultural "force projection" hasn't weakened; they are being severely squeezed when it comes to trade dominance (https://merchantmachine.co.uk/china-vs-us/ https://merchantmachine.co.uk/china-vs-us/) and monetary dominance (see James Rickards' books).
America still has its hegemony, but the notion that it's declining is very much mainstream in academia (https://www.routledge.com/Americas-Allies-and-the-Decline-of-US-Hegemony/Massie-Paquin/p/book/9781032086989 https://www.routledge.com/Americas-Allies-and-the-Decline-of...). Worse, its national security institutions have lost credibility among a significant portion of its electorate (MAGA people), and its military hegemony is now opposed by both populist left (pacifists) and populist right (non-interventionists). They're being squeezed both abroad and at home.
- kilroy123 4y agoAll empires eventually decline.
- fortuna86 4y agoWhat colonies do the US maintain overseas? Or is the word "empire" just slang in this case ?
- sargerage 4y agoAny country hosting US military bases and aligning itself with US foreign policy: Japan, South Korea, Australia, etc. Pretty standard definition of an empire.
- jonnybgood 4y agoThey could kick the US out at anytime. They won't because they want the US to be there. Not the standard definition at all.
- fortuna86 4y agoUS bases pay rent on land, employ locals, and will instantly shut down if the host country asks them to (after having been invited to enter to begin with). Of course there are cold war era exceptions, but this is the norm: > The U.S. base at the Bishkek airport had become a regular source of criticism from various Kyrgyz politicians and, with heavy Russian influence, it also closed in 2014. https://www.rferl.org/a/u-s-military-bases-in-central-asia-part-two-/31219781.html https://www.rferl.org/a/u-s-military-bases-in-central-asia-p... Again, doesn't sound like any Empire i've read about in a history book.
- kilroy123 4y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Territories_of_the_United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Territories_of_the_United_Stat... https://ubique.americangeo.org/map-of-the-week/map-of-the-week-mapping-the-global-u-s-military-bootprint/ https://ubique.americangeo.org/map-of-the-week/map-of-the-we...
- fortuna86 4y agoAll those territories count their people as US citizens (except American Samoa they need to fix that), most have voted to either be part of the US or enjoy popular support of remaining so. That's not what empires do.
- jonnybgood 4y agoYou could of just said five island territories. Three in the Pacific and two in the Caribbean.