After the Apocalypse: America's Role in a World Transformed (American Empire Project)

by Andrew J. Bacevich

With the establishment discredited and Trump’s efforts to devise an alternative approach to policy having produced nothing of value, the path to a new course of action informed by a heightened appreciation for the role of race in international affairs has presented itself. Call that approach Black-over-White. Such an approach will no longer classify crimes committed by twentieth-century colonial empires (including the United States) as any less abominable than crimes committed by twentieth-century totalitarians. Rather than viewing events through the lens of great power competition centered on Eurasia, it will highlight the exploitation and deprivation of peoples inhabiting what political elites once disparaged as the Third World, where third implied “less important” and carried connotations of racial subordination. Rather than talking of peace to justify preparations for war, Black-over-White might well mean a serious commitment to equality, social justice, and genuine peace.