Imperialism and the United States: Responses to Michael Walzer: Replies
Walzer, Michael
HORST BRAND'S historical account of the debate about colonialism among German social democrats in the early twentieth century nicely makes my point: the debate we need to have today is...
...MICHAEL WALZER is co-editor of Dissent...
...Brand makes the same point himself when he tells us that the success of American hegemonic ambitions in Iraq (which for him are the same as imperial ambitions) is very doubtful...
...WITH JIM RULE I have large agreements and large disagreements, of which the latter are probably more interesting...
...occasionally, he concedes, for the good things that happen...
...His view of democracy and multilateralism seems remarkably uncomplicated...
...Rule takes this as an example of American hypocrisy: "In other words," he writes, "if the cost of democracy is an unfriendly government, that cost is too high...
...But what if the cost is not only an unfriendly government but also a government more repressive and more brutal than the existing one...
...Right now, it is hard to believe that "multilateral responsibility" would actually produce a better order (or any order at all...
...That "anyone" can be the Vietnamese in Cambodia, the Indians in Bangladesh, the Tanzanians in Uganda, the Nigerians in Sierra Leone—and the United States and NATO in Kosovo...
...It arises also with multilateralism: what if Rule's visionary order produces world disorder—increased nuclear proliferation, more cases of massacre and ethnic cleansing...
...If we are to get the interaction among these different factors right, we need to think, not just repeat ancient formulas...
...The issue is hard, and it may require a politics of subtlety, compromise, and indirection...
...Nobody, it's worth noting, was prepared to be the "anyone" in Rwanda in 1994, and I am afraid that there are and will be many similar cases— which should be taken, I believe, as failures of internationalism...
...But a 180-degree turn in American foreign policy is far from all that is necessary for its realization...
...His vision of "multilateral responsibility for world order" is one we can all endorse...
...Given the awfulness of that regime (which Rule can barely bring himself to acknowledge), that is a position well within the range of arguments that we ought to be sponsoring...
...because he believes that capitalism was totally established a long time ago, through "violence, intimidation, bribery, and other forms of state and state-sanctioned coercion...
...George Scialabba knows that Robert Nozick and I argued for many years about the relative value of capitalism and socialism...
...More modestly, if our goal is to foster liberal internationalism in a hegemonic America, we need to recognize the limits that now exist on the uses of American power and argue for the advantages of living within those limits rather than trying, as Bush and Co...
...HORST BRAND'S historical account of the debate about colonialism among German social democrats in the early twentieth century nicely makes my point: the debate we need to have today is significantly different...
...No doubt, force in such cases should be multilateral if it can be, but if there are no other "sides" ready to act, then anyone who can stop the oppression or the murder or the ethnic cleansing, should do so...
...Were we to enforce a party line on issues like this and refuse to carry dissenting views in Dissent —that would be a scandal...
...If we would only step back and allow decisions to be made by others, everything would be fine...
...And if the international left is to win its current battles, it has to understand what kinds of politics have succeeded and what kinds have failed in the past...
...But I am not certain about Rule's commitment to internationalism, which, in my understanding of it, sometimes requires the use of force on behalf of oppressed people in distant countries...
...And Nozick indeed claimed that market relations and profit-making did not require political domination...
...But the repression hasn't always worked...
...The potted history he puts in my mouth is half true...
...They both recognize that the world has changed...
...The Bush administration seems incapable of such a politics, but I doubt that Rule would support it in any case...
...A word, finally, about democracy...
...It may be that we are now witnessing that revolution...
...I do not believe it is a scandal that Dissent has published articles defending an American war to overthrow Saddam Hussein...
...But Brand wants to confront this new world with an old theory...
...That is the issue Rule persistently avoids...
...This is an example, it seems to me, of loyalty or faith, whereas what we need is skeptical, worried, innovative political analysis...
...These are not questions usefully addressed, much less settled by, the theory of imperialism...
...My own view is different: if American leftists want to defend an internationalist politics, we had better begin by acknowledging the obstacles—here at home, of course, but not only here...
...He also argued that the actually existing political domination of "new deal" and social democratic regulators stood in the way of the full development of capitalism, and he 102 n DISSENT / Winter 2004 asked whether a revolution to establish capitalism in America would be justified...
...and no one else is responsible for anything that happens...
...But Scialabba must be mystified by the radicalism and ideological fierceness of Bush and Co...
...What is left out is the long story of (partially successful) struggles to control capitalism and establish a welfare state—the existence of which Nozick recognized and condemned...
...I share Rule's anger at the unilateralism of the Bush administration, and I am ready to join him in supporting a strongly internationalist foreign policy...
...But does Rule recognize the failures...
...In Iran and Chile, by contrast, American influence was certainly important, but it worked from a distance, and social forces on the ground, the local class structure and political culture, were also important...
...Notice the images: praetorian guards refer to the Roman Empire, which was indeed a real empire, and the word "collaborator" recalls those Europeans who cooperated with their Nazi conquerors, who were indeed real conquerors...
...It is as if all the right-wing parties across the globe, all the ruling classes, and all the reactionary ideological movements, are organized from Washington...
...The Iranian and Chilean coups were the work, Brand tells us, of American collaborators and praetorian guards...
...But I will let the elites argue on their own behalf...
...But we will continue to worry about how that welfare is best understood and how it is most effectively defended...
...Rule quotes Kenneth Pollack warning us against democratic elections in Saudi Arabia, since these would probably bring Islamic fundamentalists to power...
...That argument is probably compatible with either of the views of national interest that Scialabba proposes: the welfare of the people or "the goals of the elites that control the state" (notice that a large part ARGUMENTS of our ruling elites opposed the Iraq war...
...Faith in the theory of imperialism probably also accounts for Brand's implicit claim (George Scialabba's, too) that Tip O'Neal's maxim, "All politics is local" is not only wrong but absolutely wrong: when imperial power is loose in the world, no politics is local...
...When Scialabba turns to international society, he seems to believe that were it not for the Marines and the fear of the Marines, were it not for our praetorian guards and satellite governments, and the massive repression of radical movements ordered by the United States—were it not for all this, democrats and socialists would run the world...
...At Dissent we will defend the general welfare as best we can...
...Pretending that we are almost there, except for American arrogance and aggressiveness, is indeed an exercise in crackpot optimism...
...A lot of other countries—our European allies prominent among them—would have to be prepared to worry about the way the world goes, and to act forcefully to make sure it goes well, before a multilateral order is possible...
...forms of political rule that once were possible are no longer possible...
...The theory of imperialism has triumphed over the reality principle...
...Jim Rule takes a stronger line: only crackpots can imagine an American success in Iraq...
...Yes, there has been a long history of repression aimed at labor movements and radical parties and national liberation movements that set themselves against imperial rule or the power of multinational corporations...
...are now trying, to sweep them away...
...DISSENT / Winter 2004 n 103...
...In the world as he describes it, America is responsible for the awful things that happen...
Vol. 51 • January 2004 • No. 1
