American Power and Imperialism: Harvey's New Imperialism
This paper examines David Harvey's 2005 work The New Imperialism, specifically Chapter 2, "How America's Power Grew," as a lens for understanding the United States' global standing over the past several decades. The paper explores Harvey's definitions of imperialism and capitalism, connecting them to U.S. foreign policy decisions — particularly the Iraq War — and the erosion of international alliances. It argues that Harvey's framework reveals America not as a singular superpower acting independently, but as the most visible participant in a broader network of intersecting global agendas, capital accumulation, and political self-interest.
- Introduction: America's Global Perception: America's damaged reputation and Harvey's framework
- Harvey's Definition of Imperialism: Imperialism defined and applied to U.S. actions
- Capitalism, Capital, and Molecular Power: Capital as political and military power bloc
- America's Path to Power: Historical path tracing U.S. power accumulation
- Global Economies and Shared Interests: Interconnected world economies and eroding alliances
- The Question of Regional Fragmentation: Harvey's unanswered question about U.S. control
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What makes this paper effective
- The paper grounds its argument in a specific primary text — Harvey's The New Imperialism — and consistently returns to direct quotations to support each analytical point.
- It connects abstract theoretical concepts (imperialism, capital accumulation, molecular power) to concrete historical events, making the analysis accessible and grounded.
- The reflective, first-person voice creates a sense of genuine intellectual engagement with the material, giving the argument personal stakes without sacrificing analytical focus.
Key academic technique demonstrated
This paper models close reading of a secondary scholarly source: the student does not merely summarize Harvey but actively applies his framework to real-world political events, testing whether the theory holds explanatory power. Each quoted passage is followed by analysis that draws a specific connection to U.S. history or foreign policy, demonstrating how to use a theorist as an analytical tool rather than simply a citation.
Structure breakdown
The paper opens by framing the problem — America's damaged global reputation — and introduces Harvey as the interpretive guide. Subsequent sections follow Harvey's chapter argument sequentially, applying each concept (imperialism, capitalism, global alliances, capital geography) to the American experience. The paper concludes with Harvey's own unanswered question about regional fragmentation, leaving the reader with the same open-ended uncertainty Harvey poses.
Introduction: America's Global Perception
Over the past three decades, America has struggled with the way in which its use of power has been perceived by other nations. The previous administration's use of inflammatory rhetoric and its decision to move forward in Iraq without consulting allies and supporters in the United Nations cast America in the role of a power monger. This poor international attitude toward America can be better understood by reading David Harvey's The New Imperialism (2005), specifically Chapter 2, "How America's Power Grew." In Harvey's opening remarks defining imperialism and capitalism as elements of a working government and society, the American reader becomes more keenly aware that allegations of capitalistic imperialism carry genuine weight — however much we might dislike the label. It becomes easier to look back over not just the past eight years but the past two decades and to see how America arrived at a place where it has lost the alliance and admiration of much of the world. Harvey helps us understand how America came to occupy that place in time.
Harvey's Definition of Imperialism
Harvey helps the reader put the term "imperialism" into context, describing its meaning as it pertains to the United States — or from an outside perspective — as "a distinctively political project on the part of actors whose power is based in command of a territory and a capacity to mobilize its human and natural resources towards political, economic, and military ends" (26). This description captures the position from which America operated when it set about effecting regime change in Iraq. Iraq, unlike Afghanistan, was the object of American leadership's obsession. What began as a seemingly noble cause was revealed as a more base abuse of power: an imperialistic regime change and nation-building effort stemming from a singular sense of retribution.
Capitalism, Capital, and Molecular Power
When Harvey speaks of imperialism as a molecular process backed by capital — wherein the command of power through political, economic, and military resources can be manipulated as a political power bloc — the reader is able to draw a direct connection between the events of the past decade and what Harvey describes as the "struggle to assert its interests and achieve its goals in the world at large" (26). The fusion of capital and state power, in Harvey's framework, is not incidental but structural, and this insight gives the reader a new vocabulary for understanding decisions that once seemed purely ideological.
Works Cited
Harvey, David. The New Imperialism. Oxford University Press, 2005.
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