Imperial Designs

by Gary J. Dorrien

This work argues that the influence of neoconservatives has been none too small and all too important in the shaping of this monumental doctrine and historic moment in American foreign policy. Through a fascinating account of the central figures in the neoconservative movement and their push for war with Iraq, he reveals the imperial designs that have guided them in their quest for the establishment of a global Pax Americana.

Genres: Politics

312 pages, Hardcover

First published November 1, 2004

About the author

Gary John Dorrien is an American social ethicist and theologian. He is the Reinhold Niebuhr Professor of Social Ethics at Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York and Professor of Religion at Columbia University, both in New York City, and the author of 18 books on ethics, social theory, philosophy, theology, politics, and intellectual history.

Prior to joining the faculty at Union and Columbia in 2005, Dorrien taught at Kalamazoo College in Michigan, where he served as Parfet Distinguished Professor and as Dean of Stetson Chapel.

An Episcopal priest, he has taught as the Paul E. Raither Distinguished Scholar at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut and as Horace De Y. Lentz Visiting Professor at Harvard Divinity School in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Reviews

[Joseph Stieb · Rating 4 out of 5]

First to review! Getting into the weeds with the neoconservative books. This one is by a religion professor at Columbia and never really gained much traction. Still, I found it to be a solid account of second-generation neocon foreign policy thought, especially around the idea of American empire. On the other hand, this is kind of a book I could write myself (yes I'm that cool) because most of the chapters are just longish summaries of the thought and writings of figures like Krauthammer, Kristol, Muravchik, Kagan, and others. One useful aspect of this book for scholars is the sub-categorization of realists and neoconservatives that gives you a really nuanced feel for the differences of opinion within these communities. If you want to know the difference between unipolar realists, democratic globalists, old Right isolationists, or multilateral realists then this is a good read for you.

I was also struck (again) by just how dumb and pig-headed many of the second generation of neocons is. It is so easy for them to snipe from the sidelines and demand the hardest line on every foreign policy issue, blasting opponents with sarcasm and derision. Frankly, most of the characters in this book are frightening people: they haven't held office so they don't know the perils and compromises inherent in leadership, they are utterly convinced of their own rightness, they have a fanatical, basically unshakeable belief in the universality of American ideals, they almost never admit fault, they are dismissive of restraint and they are ends-justifies-the-means Machiavellian about achieving their goals. Dorrien ends the book with an excellent essay about how self-defeating and ideologically contradictory it is to seek imperial power and/or indefinite unipolarity in order to spread liberal ideas. He reasserts the importance of an American global role that maintains and open international order and promotes democratic/human rights ideals where possible while acknowledging the limits of American power and the fact that other countries will never see us as we wish to be seen.