US Hegemony and the Continuity of Imperial Foreign Policy

Introduction: Continuity and Change in International Politics

There are no fundamental differences between the present and what international politics used to be in the first half of the 20th century. It is true that the post-WWII period has been more peaceful, but this is not because of a fundamental transformation in the way international politics works.

To state that there are no fundamental differences between international politics in 1900–45 and afterwards would be to carry the argument to an extreme, even though the continuities are greater than the discontinuities. Above all else, the liberal, democratic states and empires of the US and Western Europe were highly interventionist and aggressive in the developing world and Global South long before World War II, and this did not change during the Cold War and post-Cold War eras. Even governments that were democratically elected were sometimes overthrown and replaced by more pliable regimes, such as the "friendly" dictators of Central America and the Caribbean. At the same time, there has been far more harmony and cooperation between the Great Powers since 1945 than in the previous fifty years, especially through NATO and the European Union. America's alliance with Japan, Britain, France, and Germany has survived various stresses and strains over the decades, including the collapse of the Soviet Union, and this requires explanation.

None of the imperial powers has fought a major war since the invention of nuclear weapons, even though they have intervened frequently against the non-nuclear states of the developing world. Perhaps this alliance is explained by political and ideological affinities, as liberals maintain, or by cultural affinities as opposed to Muslim and Orthodox civilizations, as Samuel Huntington argues — though Japan remains a notable outlier in that framework. Realists would counter that self-interest holds the liberal powers together, particularly against the political, military, and economic threats they face from outsiders. In practice, these powers do seem to operate on the basis of mutual self-interest among capitalist states, with the US still playing the role of hegemon despite its relative weakening in recent years.

American Interventionism Before and After World War II

Although the US was not a global superpower before the Second World War, there have been important continuities between the pre- and post-1945 periods, especially in relations with Latin America and other countries in the Global South. James K. Polk planned a war of aggression against Mexico and provoked an incident on the Rio Grande in 1846 in order to obtain by force the western territories that Mexico refused to sell. History affords few clearer examples of ruthless realism and the use of power, which brought about the annexation of the northern half of Mexico in 1848.

Before World War II, American interventionism was often overt and direct — simply landing troops on the shores of some prospective banana republic and installing a "friendly" government. This is exactly what happened in Hawaii, Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Philippines, Haiti, Honduras, Nicaragua, and the Dominican Republic, in some cases more than once. Although the "men who directed these 'regime change' operations may not have explained forthrightly why they were acting, but they took responsibility for their acts" (Kinzer 5). Theodore Roosevelt was hardly shy about admitting that he sent troops to Puerto Rico and the Philippines, took Panama from Colombia, or landed in person with the army in Cuba in 1898. Indeed, more sober imperialists feared he was too much of a "cowboy" and perhaps unsound in his boasting about a new American Empire.

During the Cold War, overthrowing governments was more commonly accomplished through CIA covert operations, conducted in the shadows rather than in the open. Once the Soviet Union ceased to exist, however, the US increasingly reverted to the older methods of direct intervention.

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