Comment by EthanHeilman
16 days ago
I believe this poster is viewing this statement by another Hn poster as official confirmation that US foreign policy has been driven a single mission of subjugating other countries. I disagree with this view.
The US is powerful on the international stage because the US is not an empire. US global power is based on the US being a mostly fair dealer. This is extraordinarily rare in world history and extremely powerful because it transforms a zero sum international competition game into a game where most countries are invested in the success of most of other countries.
Most of human history follows the logic of "The further off from England the nearer is to France" and that is why most of human history is soaked in blood.
Until this year, Europe didn't worry about war with the US. This meant that Europe didn't have to consider the risks that trading with the US or buying US weapons would weaken them relative to the US in a future conflict.
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Melians: "And how pray, could it turn out as good for us to serve as for you to rule?"
Athenians: "Because you would have the advantage of submitting before suffering the worst, and we should gain by not destroying you."
Melians: "So [that] you would not consent to our being neutral, friends instead of enemies, but allies of neither side?"
Athenians: "No; for your hostility cannot so much hurt us as your friendship will be an argument to our subjects of our weakness and your enmity of our power."
> The US is powerful on the international stage because the US is an empire.
There, I fixed that for you.
I suggest you avoid using words that you do now know that meaning of if you want to be able to add anything meaningful to a discussion
Care to provide any evidence for your claim? At the very least put in the work to redefine the word empire to have such a broad and expansive definition that the US would qualify
Multiple definitions I guess. NATO countries are very much part of the US empire but pretty much all the countries that we have military bases in would be part of a looser definition of the US empire.
We can control international relations that most of Europe, Canada, Australia, Japan, and South Korea have to a fairly strong degree.
I would say this along with us having had fairly strong influence in the economies of these countries historically and our ability to easily coordinate military operations with them make these countries part of the US empire.
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