Bursting America's Imperial Bubble

By EMILY S. ROSENBERG

During the 1990s, a broad array of public commentators and scholars began to argue that America's "empire" could transform the world. Augmented by sophisticated new weapons and global military bases, extension of American reach could, they suggested, spread freedom and democracy, uplift women, energize markets, and stimulate economic prosperity. Was not a universalist American empire another name for the impending, inevitable globalization of progress and peace?

"Empire" remains a word