View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by DigitalCommons@Macalester College Macalester International Volume 16 America and Global Power: Empire or…? Article 8 Spring 2005 'We're an Empire Now': The nitU ed States Between Imperial Denial and Premature Decolonization Niall Ferguson Harvard University Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.macalester.edu/macintl Recommended Citation Ferguson, Niall (2005) "'We're an Empire Now': The nitU ed States Between Imperial Denial and Premature Decolonization," Macalester International: Vol. 16, Article 8. Available at: http://digitalcommons.macalester.edu/macintl/vol16/iss1/8 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Institute for Global Citizenship at DigitalCommons@Macalester College. It has been accepted for inclusion in Macalester International by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@Macalester College. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. ‘We’re an Empire Now’: The United States Between Imperial Denial and Premature Decolonization Niall Ferguson We’re an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you’re studying that reality—judiciously, as you will—we’ll act again, creat- ing other new realities, which you can study too, and that’s how things will sort out. We’re history’s actors…and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do. A “senior adviser” to President Bush, as quoted by Ron Suskind1 ‘History,’ [Bush] said, shrugging, taking his hands out of his pockets, extend- ing his arms and suggesting with his body language that it was so far off.