Who Rules the World? (American Empire Project)

by Noam Chomsky

based on “the KGB’s most devastating torture technique,”

“preserve the power to abduct people from around the world”

“American exceptionalism.”

“civilizing mission”

“exterminating the indigenous

popul...

“novelty in the...

angelic power delay no longer in completing its lib...

humanitarian inte...

The conquest of the rest of India was in large part an effort to gain a monopoly in the opium trade for Britain’s huge narcotrafficking enterprise, by far the largest in world history and designed primarily to compel China to accept Britain’s manufactured goods.30

an effort to gain a monopoly in the opium trade for Britain’s huge narcotrafficking enterprise,

by far the largest in wor...

and designed primarily to compel China to accept Britain’s ...

“earthly paradise”

“burn all, loot all, kill all”

History is replete with similar glori...

“exceptionalist” theses

atrocities of Washington’s post–Tet Offensive pacification

Washington’s post–Tet Offensive pacification

Historical amnesia is a dangerous phenomenon not only because it undermines moral and intellectual integrity but also because it lays the groundwork for crimes that still lie ahead.

control of the incomparable energy reserves of the Middle East would yield “substantial

control of the world.”

the project of American global dominance that was clearly articulated during World War II

From the outset of the war, in 1939, Washington anticipated that it would end with the United States in a position of overwhelming power.

to lay out plans for the postwar world.

a “Grand Area” that the United States was to dominate,

western hemisphere, the Far East, and the former British Empire, with its Middl...

much of Eurasia as possible—at least its economic core, ...

ensuring the “limitation of any exercise of sovereignty”

It was always recognized that Europe might choose to follow an independent course;

the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was partially intended to counter this threat.

that “NATO troops have to guard pipelines that transport oil and gas that is

protect sea routes used by tankers and other “crucial infrastructure” of the energy system.4

Grand Area doctrines license military interv...

right to use military force to ensure “uninhibited access to key markets, energy supplies, and strategic resources,”

The United States and its Western allies are sure to do whatever they can to prevent authentic democracy in the

Arab world.

Support for democracy is the province of ideologists and

propagandists.

In the real world, elite dislike of democra...

The operative principle was described by Marwan Muasher,

“The traditional argument put forward in and out of the Arab world is that there is nothing wrong, everything is under control.

supports dictatorships and blocks democracy and development so as to ensure control over the resources of the region.

Smith urged the liberated colonies to produce primary products for export and to import superior British manufactured goods,

and certainly not to attempt to monopolize crucial goods,

the colonies simply dismissed his advice

independent state-guided development, with high tariffs

The independent republic also sought to gain a monopoly over cotton so as to “place all other nations at our feet,”

sound economics, now called “neoliberalism.”

“invisible hand”