Home > Foreign Policy Experts Target U.S. ’Empire-Building’
Foreign Policy Experts Target U.S. ’Empire-Building’
By Jim Lobe
October 17, 2003 by OneWorld.net
WASHINGTON — Representatives of a new coalition of
prominent foreign-policy scholars and analysts whose
political views range from right to center-left
announced here Thursday they hope to spearhead
opposition to the imperial policies pursued by the
administration of U.S. President George W. Bush.
Leaders of the "Coalition for a Realistic Foreign
Policy" charged that the administration is moving ’’in a
dangerous direction toward empire,’’ an idea that they
said has never been embraced by the U.S. public.
We are more isolated from the general opinions of
mankind than at any time in history.
Scott McConnell, chief editor of ’The American
Conservative’ magazine The spokespersons said they will
hold a series of policy forums and conferences around
the country, publish papers and articles, and represent
an anti-imperial viewpoint on television and radio,
media that, since the Sep. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on
New York and the Pentagon, have been largely dominated
by pro-imperial or pro-war voices.
’’We are a diverse group of scholars and analysts from
across the political spectrum who believe that the move
toward empire must be halted immediately,’’ says the
coalition’s charter statement, signed by 44 foreign-
policy specialists.
’’We are united by our desire to turn American national
security policy toward realistic and sustainable
measures for protecting U.S. vital interests in a manner
that is consistent with American values,’’ it added.
’’The time for debate is now,’’ the charter states,
noting that imperial policies ’’can quickly gain
momentum, with new interventions begetting new
dangers.’’
Among the more prominent right-wing signers are Doug
Bandow, a special assistant to former president Ronald
Reagan and now a senior officer at the libertarian Cato
Institute; Scott McConnell, chief editor of ’The
American Conservative’ magazine; and Alan Tonelson of
the U.S. Business & Industrial Council Educational
Foundation.
Representing more centrist positions are Steven Clemons
of the New America Foundation, former senator Gary Hart,
and Harvard international relations professor Stephen
Walt.
On the left side of the spectrum are Charles Kupchan, an
aide to former president Bill Clinton now with the
Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) and Kenneth Sharpe, a
prominent foreign-policy analyst from Swarthmore College
in Philadelphia.
The launch of the coalition, which intends to recruit
other members, comes amid growing concern in both the
U.S. Congress and the public about the aftermath of
Washington’s invasion of Iraq last March.
Congress is currently debating the fate of an
administration request for some $87 billion over the
next year for U.S. military operations and
reconstruction in Iraq. While the package is expected to
be approved with only minor modifications, it has
provoked substantial unhappiness, even from Bush’s
fellow Republicans, who worry that the occupation could
turn into a quagmire.
In addition, the administration’s proposed new anti-
terrorist legislation has provoked considerable
opposition on Capitol Hill among lawmakers who claim
that it jeopardizes many constitutional rights and gives
too much power to the state.
And while public-approval ratings for Bush’s foreign
policy—which fell precipitously through the summer—
have stabilized, his support, as measured by a series of
polls this month, continues to erode.
Thursday’s launch of the coalition was tied to the
change in the national debate, according to Kupchan, who
noted that the public dialogue on Washington’s global
role had been far too muted, if one-sided, since the
9/11 attacks.
’’Now there’s been a shift in the country that has taken
place,’’ he said. ’’The fact that we’re all together
here speaks volumes about the degree to which our
foreign policy is off course.’’
’’We’re finally getting our act together,’’ said
Christopher Preble, a Cato analyst who played a key role
in convening the group.
The coalition does not intend to recruit from the
grassroots, where a number of existing movements opposed
the war on Iraq. It will instead focus on the
recruitment of foreign-policy specialists and analysts
who can help frame the context for public and media
debate.
A major target of the group will be the ’’neo-
conservative’’ strategists in and around the
administration, especially those close to Vice President
Dick Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who
led the charge into Iraq, continue to argue for military
and other actions against Syria, Iran, and North Korea,
and promoted the larger strategic vision of global U.S.
military dominance.
The coalition’s purpose appears to be, above all, to
publicly take on liberals and conservatives who support
the administration’s imperial policies, beginning with
its National Security Strategy.
That document, issued 13 months ago, calls for
Washington to maintain its predominant position in the
world at all cost, even to the extent of waging pre-
emptive war against would-be rivals, and to reshape
regions of the world in ways that are compatible with
U.S. interests and values.
’’While officials in the Bush administration publicly
reject the terms ’empire’ and ’imperialism’, according
to Preble, ’’empire fever appears to have seized those
on both the political left and the political right,’’ he
added, citing a recent assertion by prominent neo-
conservative writer Max Boot that ’’America’s destiny is
to police the world.’’
Despite their various political and foreign-policy
philosophies, all members of the group accept the basic
notion that the pursuit of U.S. military domination will
ultimately prove self-defeating.
’’We can expect, and are seeing now, multiple balances
of power forming against us. People resent and resist
domination, no matter how benign,’’ asserts the charter,
titled ’The Perils of Empire.’
’’Empire is problematic because it subverts the freedoms
and liberties of citizens at home, while simultaneously
thwarting the will of people abroad,’’ it notes. ’’An
imperial strategy threatens to entangle America in an
assortment of unnecessary and unrewarding wars.’’
An imperial strategy also ’’threatens to weaken us as a
nation, overextending and bleeding the economy and
straining our military and federal budgets.’’
’’We are more isolated from the general opinions of
mankind than at any time in history,’’ said McConnell,
adding that he shares the concerns of conservative icon
Edmund Burke, who worried in the early 19th century that
Britain’s very power at the time would result both in
opposition around the world and in taking on costs that
it could not afford in the long run.
Kupchan said the administration’s basic assumptions had
already proven deeply flawed. Among those, he said, were
its belief that ’’the stronger America is, the more
uncompromising its leadership, the more likely the rest
of the world would follow along.’’
’’The United States today is far less safe than it was
several years ago, because we have weakened the
international architecture which helped protect us.’’