Agonies of Empire is the product of years of thinking about the United States. Michael Cox reflects on the recent past—the decades of what we still refer to as the “post–Cold War”—to understand the difficulties and limits of US global power.
Tag: empire
H-Diplo|RJISSF 14-21 on Martin, The Meddlers
Despite the best revisionist historiography of the past decade, there remains a particularly stubborn origins story about institutions of international economic governance.[1] In this account, the Bretton Woods systems inaugurated an unprecedented era of governing the global economy. Its heyday is associated with a period of embedded liberalism, which sought to combine the liberalization of…
H-Diplo Roundtable XX-15 on Republic in Peril: American Empire and the Liberal Tradition
In Republic in Peril: American Empire and the Liberal Tradition, David Hendrickson, a prolific and provocative scholar, offers an eloquent root-and-branch critique of American foreign policy, focusing chiefly on the post-Cold War decades.[1] In essence, Hendrickson contends that the precepts and practices of U.S. statecraft have corroded Americans’ liberty at home and increased the threats…
Roundtable 6-5 on The Rise & Decline of the American ‘Empire’: Power and its Limits in Comparative Perspective
Something about the decline of great powers provokes great debates, and this roundtable is no exception. In his latest work, Geir Lundestad deploys the formidable learning he has acquired in a distinguished and prolific career as a diplomatic historian to dissect the current debate on American decline. He considers contemporary concerns in a broad historical…
Roundtable 2-3 on Empire for Liberty: A History of American Imperialism from Benjamin Franklin to Paul Wolfowitz
Anyone bold enough to write a synthesis of such a controversial topic as American empire can expect a range of reactions stretching as far to the left as to the right and including all shades of opinion in between. Richard Immerman has tackled one of the most hotly contested and long-standing issues in American foreign…