America as Empire: Global Leader or Rogue Power?
Jim Garrison
Jim Garrison’s book addresses a poignant theme faced by American culture today. Garrison explains that America must tread carefully in the present as to avoid crossing the fine line of acting as a “global leader” and acting as a “rogue power.” To begin with, I found it necessary to look up the word ‘rogue,’ which dictionary.com defines as “vicious and solitary,” clearly a negative term. This being established, Garrison is attempting to address what it is that would make a country appear to be overbearing, overly aggressive and power hungry rather than as a respected, admired superpower.
Contrary to my belief upon picking up the book, Garrison quickly enlightened me to the other option. I had never thought of America as a “rogue power.” However, after giving it a few thoughts, and having Garrison’s input on the matter, it seems quite apparent that America has in fact become a rogue power. America, which was once seen as a picture-perfect place where dreams could be achieved and freedom be found, has indeed become a dominant solo power. It is the unmatched superpower of the world, unmatched by any foreign nation since the collapse of the Soviet Union. However, I found it quite strange to see in such black and white print, an assertion of America as a ruthless master in commander. Though the charm of living in America is that we have the ability and the freedom to criticize whatever we feel, it is rare for me to encounter an American with such a seemingly un-American point of view. Never the less is was quite informative.
I also agree with Garrison that the principles and practices upon which America was founded 225 years ago have drastically changed. Garrison stated that America “used to represent freedom. It now represents power.” After reading that, I was forced to take a step back and really consider that statement. To my own dismay I could not think of any grounds to disprove this statement. I found it quite disheartening to suddenly realize that America had in all essences of the word, had come to define the word “power.”
Garrison examines what makes a nation considered to be a republic, verses what makes a nation considered to be a republic. If a republic implies a democratically run single nation, then that term cannot completely apply to America.
Breen, T. H., and Stephen Innes. Myne Owne Ground: Race and Freedom on Virginia 's Eastern Shore, 1640-1676. 25th anniversary ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005. 142 pages (kindle edition).
"America's present need is not heroics but healing, not nostrums but normalcy, not revolution but restoration .not submergence in internationality but sustainment in triumphant nationality."
In the concluding fourth section entitled “Independence” Holton brings the crux of his argument to fruition, arguing convincingly that Virginia's elites were pushed ever further down the road to open rebellion by the actions of several different groups, whose contributions to the founding of the United States have been overlooked by historians. Holton's conclusion offers a vision of pluralistic causation behind the final decision of the gentry class to finally make the break with Britain and highlights the need for further research and study of points raised in this monograph concerning the contributions these marginal groups in the founding of the United States.
...hich the higher class dominated society with their ability to obtain just about anything they could win over. This is a fair judgement on how to perceive the gentry of Virginia to be at the time because of the many traits and activities that they went through. The activities conducted throughout each day served as a symbolic function among the people and reflected many many personal traits that each of them possessed. The horse racing and many other forms of gambling “legitimized the cultural values which racing symbolized- materialism, individualism, and competitiveness”. The people of Virginia began a new form of colony in which sought the independence they believed they deserved and they went on to take advantage of the situation they had. Resulting in a inequality among the people and wealth, and also the continuation of greed for more goods through the colony.
Early Virginia's flourishing cultivation of tobacco drew a diversity of people, from fresh war veterans and former soldiers, to adventurers and ordinary people looking to recoup from former monetary losses. However the tobacco did not only alter the country culturally and economically, but it “ threw more wood into the fire.” It strengthened the infamous individualistic attitude the colonists had. The advent...
Seaney, Column By Rick, and Ceo Of Farecompare. "Post 9/11 Flight Security: When Increased Safety Isn't More Effective." ABC News. ABC News Network, 09 Sept. 2011. Web. 22 Apr. 2014.
The term “America” does not have one but many definitions that various people have come up with through out the centuries. Some believe America is everything they could hope for and some have believed that it is not what it seems. Frederick Douglas’ What to the Slave is the Fourth of July and Michael Rogin’s text Political Repression in the United States are two pieces of historic evidence that show what each individual imagined America as. Although both pieces have similarities, they have differences as well not only in their ideas but their writing style and content as well.
Breen, T. H., and Stephen Innes. "Myne owne ground": race and freedom on Virginia's Eastern Shore, 1640-1676. 25th anniversary Ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 2004.
During the construction of the new Constitution, many of the most prominent and experienced political members of America’s society provided a framework on the future of the new country; they had in mind, because of the failures of the Articles of Confederation, a new kind of government where the national or Federal government would be the sovereign power, not the states. Because of the increased power of the national government over the individual states, many Americans feared it would hinder their ability to exercise their individual freedoms. Assuring the people, both Alexander Hamilton and James Madison insisted the new government under the constitution was “an expression of freedom, not its enemy,” declaring “the Constitution made political tyranny almost impossible.” (Foner, pg. 227) The checks and balances introduced under the new and more powerful national government would not allow the tyranny caused by a king under the Parliament system in Britain. They insisted that in order achieve a greater amount of freedom, a national government was needed to avoid the civil unrest during the system under the Articles of Confederation. Claiming that the new national government would be a “perfect balance between liberty and power,” it would avoid the disruption that liberty [civil unrest] and power [king’s abuse of power in England] caused. The “lackluster leadership” of the critics of the new constitution claimed that a large land area such as America could not work for such a diverse nation.
Never interfere with Europe was the cry of the founding fathers. Our very first president, George Washington warned us not to get involved with foreign powers. The spirit at the time of our nation’s birth was isolationism. The infant United States of America could not afford to get it’s hand caught in the cookie jar of world affairs. As children grow they get stronger, and the growth of the United States was no different. By the end of the Civil War the United States had muscles to flex. At the time the world was enthralled in the Age of Imperialism, in which a nation’s power was derived from it’s overseas holdings. The United States, who had just proved that it could beat itself up, was not going to be excluded from imperialistic contest the world arena provided. So, the United States was ushered into the Era of Imperialism.
America's Democracy The United States of America is a republic, or representative democracy. Democracy, a word that comes to us from Greek, literally means the people rule (Romance, July 8). This broad definition leaves unanswered a few important details such as who are the people, how shall they rule, and what should they rule on (July 8). Defining the answers to those questions means defining a model for a democratic system.
Johnson, Loch K. 1942-. American Foreign Policy and the Challenges of World Leadership. Power, Principle, and the Constitution. New York: Oxford UP, 2015. Print.
First you might need to know definition of tectonics. It is a theory in geology. The lithosphere of the Earth is divided into a small number of plates which float on and travel independently over the mantle and much of the Earth’s seismic activity occurs at the boundaries of these plates. That is the official definition of Plate tectonics. secondly, this plate covers many parts of continents. plate boundaries don’t go according to Continents boundaries, they make their own boundaries. The North American plat...
I believe that the early settlers of the colony of Virginia made it into an exploitative and ignorant colony, due to the fact that it was set up primarily to make a small number of individuals wealthy while ignoring the rights of its other members. In the year 1607, a group of adventurers from the Virginia Company established the first English-American colony in the Chesapeake Bay area (Greene, 1988). They landed in Jamestown, and it became the first English settlement to survive in the New World. They named the colony Virginia. In its early history, Virginia was known for its drive to conquer the land and in some cases people, so that it would bring its main benefactors wealth and power (Morton, 1960). This is where the colony of Virginia became highly exploitative because of the greediness of so few people. The wealth and power that these benefactors were looking for mainly came from the growing of tobacco, a labor intensive crop, which was sold in the European market. In order to grow this crop they needed workers to maintain the fields, however, at this time Virginia was characterized as having a high mortality rate. Thus, they had to go out and find a source of laborers. They went out and at first got the labor they needed by recruiting indentured servants from England. These economically poor Europeans were used and abused by their own people, but not as much as the as the black African slaves. In the mid-seventeenth century, slaves became the main source of labor for the labor starved colony, so that the cultivation of the tobacco plantations would continue. The Europeans degraded these people and treated them in some cases, as bad as a dog treats a fire hydrant. One group ...
... more powerful than today, thanks to Supreme Court rulings in light of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the vision of our forefathers was always to divide the power and share responsibilities.