On Imperialism

Some interesting brain droppings from recent opinion pieces on America's place in the world

Victor Davis Hansen can be somewhat of an acquired taste politically, but his "Imperialism Lessons From History" which came to my mailbox in this month’s Imprimis harkens back to his days as a reputable classics scholar (The Who Killed Homer? Era) and as such I think is worth sharing widely. The key quote in here was: “ Empires like to think of themselves as having a lot of friends, but they are often naive in forgetting the depth of the ill-will they incur.”

It reminds me of a debate that I heard David Sachs and Jason Calacanis having Friday on the All-In podcast about how flexing our economic muscles by denying SWIFT access to the Russians and cranking to 11 on sanctions in an unprecedented way to the Ukraine invasion has catalyzed the BRICS coalition (India, China, Russian, Brazil, South Africa, etc) to take steps to insulate themselves from the US financial system. For perspective, the economic sanctions we imposed on Russia were far worse than any previously imposed on Iran, Iraq, Venezuela or others we opposed. I’m not commenting on whether or not this was the appropriate course of action given all available options (it may well have been), but in doing so we may have created an environment whereby the BRICS countries, which now represent close to 31% of global GDP combined (and expect to grow to 50% by 2030) think its necessary to start decoupling from ForEx, Debt, payment settlement and other financial instruments which are primarily controlled by the US and G7 countries. Political capital, when used, stops being an asset on the diplomatic balance sheet and if taken too far can even create a liability.

Many of the members of the new BRICS coalition are countries (like the UAE and Saudi Arabia) America currently counts as allies and this should bring us pause. Trillions in treasure we’ve spent to keep them secure from Iranian aggression and insure we have access to their oil reserves. Now that seems to be changing. I’m reminded of a famous quote from the former British Prime Minister Lord Palmerston: “We have no eternal allies, and we have no perpetual enemies. Our interests are eternal and perpetual, and those interests it is our duty to follow.”

I’m a foreign policy realist (and recovering neoconservative, having long ago been mugged by reality) and I think that we owe it to ourselves to consider how we can be less gregarious in trying to impose our values uninvited on other countries and where doing so may get in the way of advancing our interests. Hansen’s piece draws some great parallels to historical empires (many of which were unintentional like ours) and how we could potentially avoid their fate.

So while I certainly hope that we prevail in this conflict and that Russia is checked as a menace in Eastern Europe, I’ll close on a pensive note with the words of Scipio Africanus the Younger as he watched Carthage burn from the harbor: “it is glorious, but I have a dread foreboding that some time the same doom will be pronounced upon my own country.”