5 Signs of Imperialism

1. Interference with other countries’ elections (for example, helping to stage a coup to undermine democratically elected officials in other countries because those officials don’t align with your country’s interest in their resources).

2. A strong military presence around the world––including $$$millions in military sales and transfers to at-risk countries who agree to protect your political and economic interests in exchange for military assistance.

3. Lack of international accountability (for example, refusing to be a signatory to the International Criminal Court, even though nearly all of your allies have agreed to do so. Then, agreeing with the decisions of those courts when it suits your interests––e.g., charging a rival leader with war crimes––but sanctioning those courts when the same standards are applied to some of your political allies).

4. Enabling your major financial institutions to burden developing countries with conditional loans (the condition being that they open their markets to your private investors), resulting in “debt traps,” as well as encouraging these institutions to fund foreign investors to extract resources and goods from these developing countries, with the primary benefits accruing to local and foreign elites.

5. Exploiting and bullying other countries with the goal of maintaining access to their resources (notably, oil)––often made possible through tactics of the sort described by 1-4.

Can you guess which country engages in all five?

For further reading:

• Rashid Khalidi, Sowing Crisis: The Cold War and American Dominance in the Middle East.

• Leif Wenar, Bloor Oil: Tyrants, Violence, and the Rules that Run the World.

• Claire Provost and Matt Kennard, Silent Coup: How Corporations Overthrew Democracy.

• James Walteman, “The World Bank’s Conditional Loans: A Stranglehold on Developing Economies and Societies.”