News Release

November 26, 2002

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Defense Expert Warns Against U.S. Acting as "Globocop"
Adoption of empire strategy would be harmful to the U.S. economy and national security

WASHINGTON -- Advocates of the United States taking on a foreign policy emulative of those of the British and Roman empires ignore many dangerous realities of empires, according to a new Cato Institute Policy Analysis.

In "The Empire Strikes Out: The `New Imperialism' and Its Fatal Flaws," the Cato Institute's Ivan Eland debunks the myths of neo-imperial policies and details why the strategy is dangerous to U.S. national security.

Eland, Cato's director of defense policy studies, argues that "today's world bears little resemblance to the one over which Britain and Rome once presided." Specifically, the interconnectedness of today's world makes haughty international activities risky politically, diplomatically, and economically, and the consequences of anti-imperial reaction will be on a much larger scale.

"Indeed, the British and Romans were the targets of assassinations, arson, and other forms of anti-imperial backlash, but that activity was typically small-scale and took place far away from the mother country," he writes. "In contrast, forms of backlash against the U.S. role as globocop today could be large-scale and long-range and may be directed at America's homeland -- as shown by the attacks on September 11."

Additionally, Eland argues that an imperial approach to foreign policy is a bad idea because it will likely deplete the military resources and economy of the United States, hastening the decline of America as a superpower. Neo-imperial policies also could lead to counterbalancing by other nations, including the accelerated development of weapons of mass destruction.

Eland concludes: "Having an empire does not make us safer. The animosity toward the United States -- demonstrated graphically by the attacks of September 11 -- indicates that imperial overstretch has quite the opposite effect. The first goal of any government should be to ensure the safety and well-being of the people. Adopting a strategy of empire is actually counterproductive to those ends."