The Continuity of U. S. Imperialism

Monday, May 31, 2021 - 1:00pm
CDT
Vijay Prashad

After four years of Donald Trump’s erratic foreign policies, many hoped for a more orderly world. And the Biden Administration now seeks to return to a world order under U.S. leadership -- a una-polar world. Since the end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the U.S. has sought to establish its dominance against all competitors, present and future. It sees the rise of China and of Russia as a threat. As Secretary of State Antony Blinken complained to the Chinese Foreign Minister, China is a “destabilizing force” in East Asia. Clearly, the U.S. is unwilling to accept a multi-polar world. It aims for a world order that reflects “our values and interests,” i.e. the interests of corporate capitalism.

Indian born Vijay Prashad is a voice from the global South who tells it like it is. He says the Biden foreign policy is the long-standing imperial policy of the country. It is the view of the foreign policy Establishment that sees the U. S. as “the indispensable nation,” the words of Madeleine Albright, without which there can only be “chaos and disorder,” in the words of Richard Haas, head of the Council on Foreign Relations. This is an imperial project for U.S. hegemony.

Vijay Prashad is Executive-Director of Tricontinental Institute for Social Research. He is author of The Darker Nations: A People's History of the Third World, Washington Bullets, and nearly 30 other books. Prashad has taught at Trinity College in the U.S., the American University in Beirut and currently at Renmin University of China. He is Chief Editor of LeftWord Books, correspondent for Globetrotter Media and columnist for Frontline.

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