Ferguson’s early stuff was impressive, but I think the praise went to his head. He’s taken to making superficially appealing but logically insupportable arguments. This is one of them.
there were self-proclaimed liberal imperialists in Britain, liberals who saw the British Empire as a means of spreading liberal values in terms of free markets, the rule of law, and ultimately representative government. There was an important and influential faction within the Liberal Party who saw empire as an instrument for globalizing the British liberal model.
This is true. It is also irrelevant. The “liberal imperialists” were a tiny minority, and could never have driven the empire. The British empire was not driven by the dream of these liberals (what British colony ever received “representative government?). It was driven by money. The British maintained their empire because it was profitable.
The US will never pursue empire in the British mold, because there’s no profit in it. Mercantilism is a thing of the past; free trade is a far better way of making money. Sure, there are a dozen or so failed states that might benefit from American occupation. Why on earth would Americans want to spend several decades, billions upon billions of dollars, and large numbers of lives trying to build nations there?
The British empire succeeded, to the extent to which it did, because Britain had a clear and immediate material incentive to pursue the imperial course. Without such an incentive, no democratic nation is ever going to agree to spend the money they work for and the lives of their children to spread Ferguson’s liberalism throughout the world.
Bark on, Niall. It ain’t gonna happen. I will have to look for the book, though. I’m curious to see how Ferguson works the British opium trade into his paradigm of the beneficient empire.
"pusillanimous fear of military casualties."
I guess death doesn’t look so bad from the perspective of an endowed chair. Maybe Ferguson needs to take a little walk on the wild side and come face to face with the reality of what he’s talking about. Maybe we could get him to bring Richard Perle along… |
