Dilemmas of Domination: The Unmaking of the American Empire

Walden Bello

Zed Books, 2005 - Business & Economics - 256 pages

The empire seems unassailable, but the empire is weak - and precisely because of its imperial ambitions. Walden Bello dissects the dilemmas confronting America in its quest for global domination. Despite the enormity of the U.S. defence budget, American forces are already overextended - and will become more so as each local 'victory' breeds simmering resistance. The empire faces looming economic breakdown, the result of its gargantuan military costs, record-breaking budget deficits, and exploitative trade and investment relations. On the political front, bitter disillusionment is spreading in response to America's failure to champion liberal democracy, crony capitalism and gross inequalities of income.

Dilemmas of Domination reveals a not-too-distant future in which the empire's hidden weaknesses will yield fatal challenges to American supremacy.

Contents

• The Road to Baghdad: 11
• Imperial HubrisImperial Overextension: 47
• Contemporary Capitalisms Classic Crisis: 75
• The Ascendancy of Finance: 99
• The Economics of Antidevelopment: 127
• The South Rises and the North Prevails: 153
• George W Bush and Rollback Economics: 177
• Crisis of Legitimacy: 191
• The Way Forward: 209
• Notes: 217
• Acknowledgments: 241
• Index: 243

About the author

Walden Bello is a human rights and peace campaigner, academic, environmentalist and journalist who has made a major contribution to the international case against corporate-driven globalization. He is currently the Executive Director of Focus on the Global South, as well as an adjunct professor of sociology at the State University of New York, Binghamton. He was formerly a member of the House of Representatives of the Philippines, and has previously held positions at the University of the Philippines, UCLA, and the Transnational Institute in Amsterdam. His previous books include Dilemmas of Domination: the Unmaking of the American Empire (Zed 2005), and Capitalism's Last Stand? Deglobalization in the Age of Austerity (Zed 2013).

Bibliographic information

• Title: Dilemmas of Domination: The Unmaking of the American Empire
• Author: Walden Bello
• Publisher: Zed Books, 2005
• ISBN: 1842776932, 9781842776933
• Length: 256 pages
• Subjects: Business & Economics / Government & Business; Business & Economics / International / Economics & Trade; Political Science / American Government / General; Political Science / Globalization; Political Science / International Relations / General; Political Science / Public Policy / Economic Policy; Political Science / Public Policy / General; Political Science / Public Policy / Military Policy