The Rise and Decline of the American 'Empire

The question as to whether or not the United States was an empire, is an empire, and, if so, will continue to be an empire, has, over the past decades, exercised the minds of hundreds of historians, journalists and commentators. Geir Lundestad, Professor of International History at the University of Oslo and Director of the Norwegian Nobel Institute, established some time ago one of the more long-lived conceptual approaches to the subject. This was that, particularly in Europe but also elsewhere, the US was an ‘“empire” by invitation’, pulled in by those seeking safety, rather than pushing itself in. This is a concept which he has developed over many years and in a number of publications, portions of which make substantial appearances in this book. He does make this manifestly clear in his footnotes, providing the relevant sources. If the basic structure of the concept has changed but little, the period of time since it was developed and modified has—witnessing, in particular, the rise of certain states and the relative decline of others. Professor Lundestad presents this volume as the final summation of his thoughts on this theme and related topics

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