Even if the US could dominate the World militarily and economically in the past, it can no longer do so now. The outcome of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars contribute massively to this lack of fear. (Military planners throughout the World now understand that the US is best contained asymmetrically and that the US “usually does not get the politics behind the War”).
About the British Empire and gunboats. The British Empire was ultimately a failure because it was based on a wrong set of ideas (racial superiority, colonies serving the metropole). It collapsed like a pack of cards, exhausted after the Second World War.
Maybe the US was the only major power to realise the folly of colonial enterprise. My view is different, the US spent so much energy during the 19th Century trying to come to terms with it’s Continent-sized land mass that it barely had enough time and resources to devote to a European-style empire. There were colonial excursions (e.g. The Philippines, parts of Latin America), but unlike Britain and France the US could afford not “keep up with the neighbours” with an extensive colonial empire.
The US “feared” the USSR just as much as the USSR “feared” the US. A threat by the Soviets to intervene militarily in the war between Egypt and Israel was enough to get Kissinger on the phone with the Israelis. There are so many examples, like the trailing of the USS Enterprise by a Soviet Nuclear Sub during the India - Pakistan war or the reluctance of the US to escalate the conflict in North Vietnam for fear of drawing in the Chinese into the war. The Korean War is a classic example.
correct.
the colonial enterprise is not and has not been a "folly"
The British Empire was ultimately a failure because it was based on a wrong set of ideas (racial superiority, colonies serving the metropole). It collapsed like a pack of cards, exhausted after the Second World War.
You forget the main result of the British Empire was to make England rich. It got captive markets and captive suppliers and got richer and richer. From a poor, small state of 4 million in 1600, it became the industrial powerhouse with massive monopolies by 1900. This was not a failure
Remember I used the qualifier “ultimately”, not “while it lasted”.
In contrast, the age of America is an age based on mutual respect, trade and equality. It is an “Empire of the Mind”, not an Empire based on jackboots, gunboats and preferential tariffs for cotton manufacturers in Manchester.
Remember I used the qualifier “ultimately”, not “while it lasted”.
In contrast, the age of America is an age based on mutual respect, trade and equality. It is an “Empire of the Mind”, not an Empire based on jackboots, gunboats and preferential tariffs for textile mills in Manchester.