The New Imperialism?

Over the past year or so, the word "imperialism" has taken a beating in the press. The general line seems to be "imperialism" is bad. But to paraphrase Jessica Rabbit, imperialism, as a concept, is not necessarily bad -- it's just drawn that way. In essence, the argument in favor of the "new imperialism" is that failed states threaten the world order either because they harbor terrorists or madmen with territorial ambitions, and it is incumbent upon richer, more democratic states to tend to these failed states if the successful states want to preserve a stable international order. For all of its faults, so the argument goes, the world order that existed under various empires was at least orderly.

One of the early defenders of the "new imperialism" was Sebastian Mallaby, an editor and columnist at the Washington Post who wrote about liberal imperialism in Foreign Affairs in March/April 2002. [link]. Mallaby admits that his thinking has "evolved" on this issue, and he recently penned a post-script that acknowledges that the label "imperialism" may be problematic. Nevertheless, Mallaby stands by the fundamental argument behind the concept of "new imperialism":

But what I don't regret is the argument behind my label. As bad as the recent experience in Iraq has been, we can't escape the fact that we will face more challenges like this: state failure does threaten our interests and we have to respond to it. Projects such as the International Reconstruction Fund I proposed in my Foreign Affairs essay no longer seem as far-fetched as they did then. . . We lack the tools and institutions to do what empires once did, and we need somehow to create them. [link]

I have been trying to decide whether I agree with Mallaby that empires provided a kind of world order that would be useful today. I don't know yet where I come out on the balance between imposing a stable international order and honoring self-determinism, but I'll let you know when I do figure it out. [I know that these days, it's rare for a blogger to say "gee, I don't know" since blogging tends toward instant and polarized opinion-formation, but there it is. I don't know.]