During the past few months, much has been said and written on the subject of a “new American empire.” This term, however, is a misnomer. If the Iraq war is to be seen as a kind of imperial venture, then the project is neither new nor purely American. What President Bush likes to call the “coalition of the willing” is dominated, after all, by America, Britain, and Australia—three English-speaking countries whose allegiances are rooted not just in a shared culture and common institutions but also in a shared history of territorial expansion. Seen in this light, the alignment is only the newest phase in the evolution of the most potent political force of the last two centuries: the Anglophone empire.




In the case of the 1857 uprising, the truth is that the reigning power’s brutal response resulted in some significant changes in Indian political life. Britain’s overwhelming victory was instrumental in persuading a majority of Indians that it was futile to oppose the empire with an armed struggle. This consensus led many in the next generation of anti-colonialists to turn in a more parliamentary and constitutionalist direction, and was the necessary backdrop to Mahatma Gandhi’s tactics of nonviolent resistance.






The modern connotations of the word “empire” also show how the context of imperialism has changed. For many, especially in America, it is a reminder of an image that played a significant part in discrediting the Soviet Union: the “evil empire.” This is not a purely rhetorical anxiety; the unease goes deeper than that. A substantial proportion of America’s population remains unconvinced of the need to undertake a new version of a “civilizing mission.” This is what distinguishes America from the imperial nations of the past.

As George Orwell and many other observers of imperialism have pointed out, empires imprison their rulers as well as their subjects. In today’s America, where people are increasingly disinclined to venture beyond the borders, this has already come to pass. But perhaps, in these accelerated times, it won’t be long before most Americans begin to long for an escape from the imprisonment of absolute power.

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