Pax Americana: How and Why Us Elites Turned Global Primacy into a Silent Empire

By Manuel Lopez-Linares

Pax Americana: How and Why US Elites Turned Global Primacy into a Silent Empire turns to the recently written pages of the history of the United States. Looking at them with a fresh perspective to test against the record of critics that claim the country has changed the character of its global involvement, Manuel Lpez-Linares explores how the United States has moved beyond its role as the primary force for doing good to building an empire to protect and extend its wealth and power.

In Pax Americana, the image of a shining city upon a hill, long a self-characterization of America, sets the stage for exploring the steps that have taken the United States down the road toward extending its grasp to secure its claims to the resources necessary to build, maintain, and extend a quiet empire with a globe-spanning presence. Turning to the period following World War II, a historical review of nine instances, beginning with Iran in 1953 and ending with Iraq in 2003, delineates the growing reach of Americas imperial tendencies. A chapter then explores the character of Americas elites who have influenced this series of developments. A philosophical exploration of the underpinnings of this history traces the causes and reasons for the decisions and actions the country has taken. A final chapter, Time to Recover, seeks to reclaim neglected strands of Americas heritageits political philosophy and its fundamental aspirations for freedom, dignity, and equalityand to urge the country to return to these roots.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Apr 29, 2016
• ISBN: 9781491793947

Manuel Lopez-Linares

Manuel López-Linares earned a bachelor’s degree from Georgetown University School of Business in 1994, a political science degree from Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia in 2008, and a PhD in economics and international relations from Universidad Autónoma de Madrid in 2013.

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Copyright © 2016 Manuel Lopez-Linares.

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ISBN: 978-1-4917-9395-4 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4917-9396-1 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4917-9394-7 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2016906735

iUniverse rev. date: 4/29/2016

CONTENTS

Introduction

1    A Shining City Upon A Hill

2    They Have What We Need

3    A Bit Of History

–   Iran 1953

–   Guatemala 1954

–   Congo 1961

–   Vietnam 1964

–   Indonesia 1967

–   Oman 1970

–   Chile 1973

–   Afghanistan 2001

–   Iraq 2003

4    The American Elites

5    Why Is This Possible? The Philosophical Base

6    Time To Recover

"The sharpest criticism often goes hand in hand

with the deepest idealism and love of country."

— Robert F. Kennedy

To Leticia

INTRODUCTION

The years I spent in Washington D.C. over two decades ago ignited my interest in international relations. During that time at Georgetown, it was difficult not to be concerned about the way US politics functioned. It did not take me too long to realize that the United States of America were then in a unique position: they were the first and only truly global superpower of all times. And if I was to better understand how the world worked, that was a crucial fact worth learning more about.

I later began a career in economics, while I continued part-time studies in political science. But as much as I researched about America’s position in the international community, it was never quite enough to be able to fully explain its recent past and intense present involvement throughout our planet. It was clear to me that America’s dominant position was a chiefly positive force in global relations, but general and persistent accusations of empire-building and subtle colonialism were an incentive to continue searching for a more complete picture.

I decided to continue learning about it and ended up writing a doctoral thesis on America’s recent military interventions in the Greater Middle East. Rome and other regional empires of the past clearly searched for increasing power through greater wealth: they exploited foreign resources by force, and they conquered new markets in order to sell their own products there. That could obviously not be America’s case. However, unclassified intelligence documents, recorded statements by public officials, and economic and trade data were all pointing to an unpleasant direction.

What is, therefore, the more complete truth about America’s role as the global superpower? Who has ultimately directed the country towards dubious foreign policy at times? And even: why and how something like this could have ever happened to the worldwide model of the open, representative democracies in the world?

These are the main, crucial questions I intend to answer in the present work. Finally, in the last chapter, I also try to find the path ahead for America to recover its full potential and avoid decay. In a time when some local political positions are drifting towards fear, division and hate, the recommendations listed at the end of this book become now even more compelling.

1    A SHINING CITY UPON A HILL

There was a temple in ancient Rome that was to remain open while the republic was at war and until peace was reached.¹ The shrine had only closed its doors twice during the seven centuries passed since the foundation of the city, up until the arrival of its first emperor. Augustus, however, was able to close it three times after he obtained crucial victories and secured peace across land and sea.² It was a peace imposed by force after defeating Marc Antony in 29 BC, the Cantabrians of Northern Spain in 25 BC, and the German tribes in 8 BC. It was Pax Romana.

The Roman Republic turned into the Roman Empire when Octavian became Augustus, at the year 27 BC. A settlement between the new emperor and the Senate was reached to tighten governability in the vast territorial conquests of the city and, truly, no one was better positioned to obtain the new leading political role than the commander in chief of its efficient army. 140 military bases strategically displayed and 300,000 troops were enough to subjugate its regional dominions, and an intricate web of land and sea routes allowed for an increasing flow of commercial exchange. Blossoming cultural expressions, an efficient fiscal system and, above all, a pioneering development of the rule of law, enabled seemingly endless prosperity in the Mediterranean.

The internal dissolution of the empire came about later through three main drivers: cultural hedonism and decay, geographic overreaching, and economic malaise³. Firstly, moral decadence weakened the strength and will power of Rome’s elites. In parallel, the size of its territorial domains, faced with rebellions and social unrest, became unmanageable. And finally, rampant inflation corroded the ability to invest, grow and prosper, because the spreading of panem et circenses policies provoked increasing public budget deficits that were financed by the creation of new currency, which in turn expanded the monetary base disproportionately. Inner disintegration ended in collapse and barbarian invasion.

Centuries passed and no similar political phenomenon revived in the West, until the Portuguese and the Spanish began to establish distant colonies throughout the globe in the late fifteenth century. Spain led as the world’s largest regional power until mid seventeenth century, when it initiated decay and France replaced it as the West´s hegemon. Cardinal Richelieu and its pragmatic raison d’etat pathed a way that abruptly finished in 1815 with Napoleon´s defeat and the Congress of Vienna. Balance of power was then the hope for many but, in the race to primacy, Great Britain excelled and surpassed the rest in their self-infringed obligation to conquer and civilize all continents. By 1900, most of the world already spoke English.

One of those British colonies grew independent in the late 1700s. And a bit more than a century after that, just when its motherland´s empire was at its zenith, the colony itself became the world’s first economic power: the United States of America.

The US republic was a new political entity inspired by late medieval Italian city-states, which in turn derived from Rome’s initial political system. America’s founding fathers wanted to recover the government by the people that had not been implemented for centuries, but the equilibrium between democratic and aristocratic elements were more appealing to them than recalling pure, ancient Greek democracies. People could choose their representatives, and elections would provide a way to select the more capable.

America’s founding fathers were aware that, by contrast, Greek cities’ ancient democracies allowed citizens to occupy administrative and power offices even by draw. They knew this apparent equality