BREAK THE CHAINS OF OPPRESION AND THE YOKE OF ...

EMpire thors also supply an ambitious vision of a democratic global society—one which
is certainly not uncontroversial but shows that “another world is possible” 4 .
Political scientist Herfried Münkler comes up with a rather smug analysis: “Being
empire is not all fun.” 5
Empires are not, “figures from sentimental literature and cinematic reminiscences”.
Empires exist and, according to Münkler, they are undergoing a “transformation
of imperial order”.
Münkler says that, in the 20th century, new forms of imperial systemization appeared
which are no longer confined to territorial presence and militarization.
Elements like economic integration, control of technological innovations and
business law take on a central role; they already played a part at the time of the
Roman Empire but they have a new significance today.
Other questions are standard elements of imperial policy – the resource question,
economic policy, legal codes.
By contrast, the empires of today do not always have an easy time at another
point; they have to contend with the media of the entire world public – at least
when they do not go so far as to switch off the Internet, as China has done. This
creates public awareness, which sets clear limits on imperial tendencies, e.g.
when it costs too many victims to be empire or the price is too high. Or when
many people note that many other people are likewise victims.
The most important insights include the fact that - with the decline of colonial
imperialism and under the conditions of globalization - present-day empires differ
completely from those of the past. New empires distinguish themselves
through a heterogeneous power policy. In more recent times, that has meant not
necessarily pursing a classical policy of aggressive conquest: troops march in,
land is conquered. �Whether � a power � is an empire �is not �shown
by the conquered
square kilometers, but by how the power succeeds in using its power, how power
is secured and with whom. Nor is an empire “America”, “the EU”, country X,
but, as the Accra Confession aptly describes, a “coming together”. The power of
empire is shown not just through the visible presence of imperial storm troops,
4 Ibid. 9: „Stark vereinfacht könnte man sagen, dass die Globalisierung zwei Gesichter
aufweist. Auf der einen Seite umspannt das Empire mit seinen Netzwerken von Hierarchien
und Spaltungen den Globus; (…) Andererseits bedeutet Globalisierung aber
auch, dass neue Verbindungen des Zusammenwirkens und der Zusammenarbeit entstehen,
die sich über Länder und Kontinente hinweg erstrecken und auf zahllosen Interaktionen
fußen. Dieses zweite Gesicht der Globalisierung bedeutet nicht die weltweite
Angleichung einer und eines jeden; es bietet uns vielmehr die Möglichkeit, unsere Besonderheit
zu wahren und das Gemeinsame zu entdecken, das es uns erlaubt, miteinander
zu kommunizieren und gemeinsam zu handeln.“
5 Münkler, Herfried: Imperien, Die Logik der Weltherrschaft – vom Alten Rom bis zu
den Vereinigten Staaten, Hamburg 2008, 184ff.
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– Empire - Provocation with a Perspective – 71