Re: <nettime> The War to come ...

On 11-Mar-2022, at 1:39 PM, Andreas Broeckmann <ab@mikro.in-berlin.de> wrote:

The impression that Prem's analysis might be marred by the conceptual limitations of "imperiology" is underscored by the fact that his examples (anecdotal, but no doubt valid examples) relate only to the US.

Andreas,

The focus on the US was not to cast that country as the sole imperialist, with Russia acting only out of valid security concerns. Russia also has imperial impulses (Syria, for example), although not at the scale of the days of the Soviet Union. And there are other imperial actors, including, as you point out, some non-state actors.

My focus on the US comes from two fronts:

The Pax Americana project which has been a dominant factor in international affairs since World War II, and even more so after 1991.
My anecdotal observations suggest that this project endures because (a) Within the US, there is a dominant and implicit belief that their country is unquestionably on the side of the angels (and one finds this even among college educated people who one would expect to be well informed on international affairs); (b) this narrative of ’side of the angels’ is reinforced by mainstream US media; and (c) Pax Americana is likely to endure far longer if this perception gap is not tackled. The perception of global US action is radically different in other parts of the world, and my examples sought to show that Pax Americana is not only felt militarily, but also in many ways that intrude into everyday lives that are free of military conflict.

I agree that, while Pax Americana may be a dominant form of imperialism, it is necessary to articulate a critique of the whole spectrum of imperial actors. I also agree, enthusiastically, that it is necessary to foreground the interests and fears of non-imperial actors, but have doubts on whether this will be enough to delegitimise the imperiological narrative. It is probably necessary to do both.

Best,

Prem

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