Perversions of Power

Abstract

This chapter examines the peculiar trait of an empire and the implications of imperial dominion. The chapter presents broad insights from the Roman Empire and the 19th-century European empires (mainly the largest of these, the British Empire) to shed light on the pressures and possibilities that foreign dominion brings. It also analyzes how states produced a distinct mix of strategic requirements, motivating incentives, emerging opportunities and changing social and cultural patterns, which serve to promote the adoption of vicarious approaches. However, imperial factors are only conditioning rather than determinative in this respect. Deep normative factors such as military and strategic culture may largely preclude a drift toward vicariousness. Ultimately, the chapter argues that these explorations are suggestive, if not determinative, in pointing to issues associated with the contemporary US experience. It provides whispers of warnings about the dangers that might threaten states that follow too closely in similar footsteps.