Imperial Benevolence

"'We don't seek empires. We're not imperialistic. We never have been. I can't imagine why you'd even ask the question.' So snapped Donald Rumsfeld at a reporter for Al Jazeera in 2003, just weeks after the George W. Bush administration launched its invasion of Iraq. While most scholars speak without hesitation about the United States as an imperial power, much of the American public, like the former secretary of defense, maintains otherwise. Imperialism is a bad word in the American political lexicon--it's something they do, not us. Millions of Americans prefer to see their government's actions abroad as selfless, benevolent, even divinely inspired. This exceptionalist mentality has deep roots, from the humanitarian objectives ascribed to eighteenth- and nineteenth-century continental expansion to the more recent characterizations of the United States as a global policeman tasked with upholding international norms and laws. Imperial Benevolence examines the ways that American popular culture since 9/11 has broadly presented the United States as a global force for good, a reluctant hegemon working to defend human rights and protect or expand democracy from the barbarians determined