IN DEFENCE OF EMPIRES1 |
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Authors: | Deepak Lal |
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Institution: | Deepak Lal is James S. Coleman Professor of International Development Studies, University of California, Los Angeles. |
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Abstract: | This article argues the case for empires. They provided global order in the nineteenth century. Their dissolution in the twentieth century resulted in global disorder. A blind spot in the classical liberal tradition was its assumption that international order would be a spontaneous by-product of limited government and unilateral free trade practised at home. This denial of power politics flowed into twentieth-century Wilsonianism. Now, there is no alternative to US imperial power to supply the global Pax. Whether the USA is willing to fulfil this role is open to question. |
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