What is Empire?

Empire, a word that gets bounced around quite a bit in reference to corporations, popularity, and nation states. Ok, so what is an empire after all? For me, the word empire makes me think of stodgy Brits in red costumes (hehe, I mean uniforms) talking about the “white man’s burden.” So obviously, looking back in history we have the Roman empire, the Muslim empire, the Greeks, the British, etc. etc. etc. All of these examples of empires have military conquest at their center, yet, seem to have more factors involved than mere conquest. Would Rome be considered an empire if they had merely taken some lands? Rather we see a sort of cultural hegemony where conquested territories had local puppet rulers who worked with Roman administrators and basically conformed to Roman culture. People spoke Latin and Greek and generally tried to “do as the Romans do” because it enabled one to better climb the social ladder. Thus, there seems to be more involved with being an empire than mere conquest and rule.This brings us down to the current United States. No one argues that America is not currently the premier world power, whether in economics, the U.N., NATO, or military bases, America simply has the most power, prosperity, and greatest proliferation. Of course, that power and prosperity may be in the process of changing, but we won’t talk about that here. So, considering this power, is America an empire? Probably critics of U.S. policy will be most likely to say quickly “yes, America is an empire.” Americans themselves tend to loathe the label due to its current negative connotation and besides they can point to our lack of direct rule over other countries. That is where the concept of “being an empire” vs. “having an empire” comes into play. For although America lacks a system of direct rule that Britain and Rome used there is still the concept of “indirect” rule. In many areas Britain used “indirect rule” methods, especially in West Africa, the Middle East, and Argentina. Here is a synopsis of the empire methods of a democracy via Niall Ferguson, a professor of history at Harvard University. Method of rule: NGOs, Firms, and Delegations to local elites. These methods sound right up the American alley. I might add that the U.S.-centric interest of many international organizations–IMF, World Bank, U.N., NATO–tends to favor a sort of American empire as well. Of course, Ferguson’s take on the whole empire issue is that Americans should embrace their empire status. After all without America the world would decend into chaos and a viking-like power could enter into the vacuum!Now I don’t really agree with this sort fear mongering and besides the Vikings were really not that bad and brought cities, trade, and civilization to many areas which did not have them. Is empire really the best way to fill the power vacuum? I highly doubt that because the empire always favors a specific country. America claims to bring democracy to the rest of the world, just as Britain did, however, the reality is much different. Anyone from Africa and Bosnia can attest to that.More to come on the role of America as empire…Sources:Ferguson, Niall. “Colossus,” Penguin books, 2005.