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Events since the attack on New York have raised questions about the nature of United States power as well as of short-term policy. Oddly, all the old voices of thirty years ago are heard again. More recent work, by comparison, is of little use, since the distinguishing feature of for instance “globalisation” literature is that it leaves out states and empires. By comparison with older, European systems, domination by the US is usually invisible both at the centre of power and at the periphery. An equivalent to older third world nationalism is hard to conceptualise in these conditions, let alone to actualise. The sorcerers and magicians who formed a more “exotic” part of resistance to European power, but politically were impotent, become a normal part of world affairs. The paper examines the contrast between current forms of power and those before World War II, the continuity of certain US views of the world, and the implications for other states of a system that, while not “imperialist” necessarily, is imperial in its scope and logic. Within that framework I shall touch on current actions and likely actions in the Middle East. |