outbreak. let's take over. american empire als wille ... - Rainer Rilling

Amitati Etzioni bestimmt Empires wie folgt: ”Empires are defined as entities
in which one member has a considerable amount of controlling power
over the memberunits. Because membership in empires is not usually voluntary,
and responsiveness to the needs of member-units is low, empires
rely (by the definition followed here) relatively little on legitimation and
draw much more on ‘naked’ power. Only a very few call for the United
States to impose on its own a Pax Americana, the way Rome did on its
world…Given that several big powers have a strong measure of selfinterest
in participating in the anti-terrorism coalition (granted that many
actions, domestic and international, are driven by mixed motives), as do
numerous smaller powers; given the coalition’s limited scope and duration;
and given that the United States has limited power over the many members
of the coalition, one might refer to the coalition as a semi-empire.” 420 Etzioni
geht es somit um das Verhältnis von Legitimation und Charakter der Machtbeziehung
zwischen „Einheiten“ sowie um die Breite des Spektrums dieser
Beziehungen. Die Auszeichnung “semi” begründet Etzioni mit dem Hinweis
darauf dass die Zielsetzung des Empire “dünn” (nämlich auf eine
Aufgabe, z.B. den Kampf gegen Terror begrenzt) sei und im Kern zwar
Nationalstaaten stünden, die substantiellen militärischen Entscheidungen
aber von den USA gefällt würden (anders als im Kosovo-Krieg) und multilaterale
Strukturen auf Konsultation begrenzt seien. Ignatieff hebt die Fähigkeit,
mit militärischen Mitteln Ordnung an den Grenzen des Empires zu
schaffen und die reale Macht in einem Zentrum zu halten als die wesentlichen
Merkmale eines Empire hervor.
Charles S. Meier hat folgende Bestimmung gegeben: „What, after all,
distinguishes an empire? It is a major actor in the international system
based on the subordination of diverse national elites who—whether under
compulsion or from shared convictions—accept the values of those who
govern the dominant center or metropole. The inequality of power, resources,
and influence is what distinguishes an empire from an alliance (although
treaties of alliance often formalize or disguise an imperial structure).
(…)Two kinds of empire existed before World War I: ʺoldʺ landed empires,
products of centuries-long expansion over contiguous territories (and still
largely agrarian and semi-authoritarian); and overseas colonial realms. (…)
Empires claim universality but accentuate divisions between inclusion and
exclusion, both on a world scale and within their own borders. Consider
national liberation movements and new national elites created post-colonial state forms. The postimperial
character of the Western bloc was real in important senses…and it was linked to democratization
and internationalization. Martin Shaw: The Problem of the Quasi-Imperial State: Uses and Abuses
of Anti-Imperialism in the Global Era (2001). Shaws Argumentation ist inkonsistent – das “Imperiale”
als gleichsam ewige Machtrelation zwischen Zentrum und Peripherie verflüchtigt sich unversehens im
Zeichen der Demokratisierung, Internationalisierung und Blockbildung in der Zeit nach dem zweiten
Weltkrieg.
420 Etzioni, Implications, S.13
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