On Not Going It Alone: A Leadership Role for America in a World without Governance

Note

Joseph Nye reviews The Case for Goliath: How America Acts as the World’s Government in the 21st Century by Michael Mandelbaum.

"...But as Michael Mandelbaum, Ph.D. ’75, argues in The Case for Goliath, the temptation to see ourselves as the new Romans should be resisted. Primacy should not be confused with empire. Empire involves supreme control over other peoples. The United States is more powerful compared to other countries than Britain was at its imperial peak, but we have less control over what occurs in other countries than Britain did. For example, when I was doing my thesis research in East Africa in the waning days of the British empire, Kenya’s schools, taxes, laws, and elections—not to mention external relations—were controlled by British officials. This country has no such control outside our borders today. Historically, we have shunned it, except for the anomalous period at the beginning of the last century when we took Puerto Rico and the Philippines from Spain. In 2003, we could not even obtain the votes of Chile and Mexico for a United Nations resolution designed to legitimize our war with Iraq. Some empire...."