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Model of Empire
Mask of Rightness Heart of Darkness
Empires
Geopolitics
The Mask
Conrad’s “Idea”
The Heart
Wealth and Power
Empire
...which mostly means the
taking it away
Labour Power
Resources Plunder
Land Sovereignty
...is not a pretty thing when
you look into it too much.
Terror Force
Murder Torture
Concentration Camps
Counter Insurgency
...from those who have a different complexion or slightly flatter noses than ourselves,
Those “others”
...What redeems it is the idea only. An
idea at the back of it; not a sentimental
pretence but an idea; and an unselfish
belief in the idea — something you can
set up, and bow down before, and offer a
sacrifice to. . . .”
A mask of
righteousness
“The conquest of the earth
Promoting: White Man’s Burden – Exceptionalism - Mission civilisatrice - Missão
civilizadora - Democracy – Humantitarian Intervention Christianity - Jihad - Holy Writ - Commerce and Civilisation
Freedom of the Seas - Defense – National Security – Rebellion – Insurgency - Greater Far East Co Prosperity Sphere –
- Free Trade – Rule of Law– Treaties - Soverign Borders – Right of Self Determination – R2P– Killing their own people
Women’s Rights - Girls Education – Development - Lebensraum
The “IDEA”:
Fighting: Bandits – Terrorists – Mau Mau – Communism
– Piracy – Them Over There – For Defense -
– National Security – Rebels – Insurgencies – The Drug War - Dictators – Genocidaires – Humanity – Slavery
Faces of Empire
Model of Empire
Mask of Rightness Heart of Darkness
Empires
Geopolitics
The Mask
Conrad’s “Idea”
The Heart
Wealth and Power
Plunder and Geopolitical Power
Argentina (1891), Haiti (1891), Hawaii (1893), Nicarargua (1894), China (1894-1895), Korea (1894-96), Panama (1895), Nicarargua (1896), China (1898-1900) , Philippines (1898), Cuba (1898-1902), Puerto Rico (1898), Nicarargua (1898), Samoa (1899), Panama (1901-1903), Honduras (1903), Dominican Republic (1903), Korea (1904 -1905), Cuba (1906-1909), Nicarargua (1907), Honduras (1911), China (1911), Cuba (1912), Panama (1912), Honduras (1912), Haiti (1914-1934), Dominican Republic (1916 1924), Cuba (1917), Russia (1918 1922), Panama (1918-1920), Honduras (1919), Guatemala (1920), China (1922-1927), Honduras (1924-1925), Panama (1925), China (1928-1934), El Salvador (1932), Iran (1946), Yugoslavia (1946), Uruguay (1947), Greece ( 1947-1949), Germany (1948), Philippines (1948-1954), Puerto Rico (1950), Korea (1951-1953), Iran (1953), Vietnam (1954), Guatemala (1954), Lebanon (1958), Iraq (1958), China (1958), Panama (1958), Vietnam (1960-1975), Laos (1961), Cuba (1961), Cuba (1962), Panama (1964 ), Indonesia (1965), Dominican Republic (1965-1966), Guatemala (1966, 1967), Cambodia (1969-1975), Oman (1970), Laos (1971-1973), the Middle East (1973), Chile (1973), Cambodia (1975), Angola (1976-1992), Iran (1980), Libya (1981), El Salvador (1981-1992), Nicarargua (1981-1990), Honduras (1982-1990), Lebanon (1982-1984) , Grenada (1983-1984), Libya (1986), Bolivia (1987), Iran (1987-1988), Libya (1989), Virgin Islands (1989), Panama (1989), Liberia (1990), Saudi Arabia-Iraq Kuwait (1990-91), ), Panama (1925), Somalia (1992-1994), Bosnia (1993), Haiti (1994), Croatia (1995), Congo (1996-1997), Liberia (1997), Albania (1997), Sudan (1998) , Afghanistan (1998), Iraq (1998), Yugoslavia (1999), Yemen (2000), Macedonia (2001), Afghanistan (2001), Iraq (2003), Haiti (2004)
Wealth - Resources - Labour- Commerce - Geopolitical Power
Empires do not have friends they have interests.
The Face of Empire
The “IDEA”: American Exceptionalism
Neo-colonialism
…is the geopolitical practice of using economic and cultural imperialism to control another country – in practice though often requiring both proxy political and proxy military control as well.
Neo-colonialism
…is the geopolitical practice of using economic and cultural imperialism to control another country – in practice though often requiring both proxy political and proxy military control as well.
Empires do not have friends they have interests.
"America is today the leader of a world-wide anti revolutionary movement in the defense of vested interests. She now stands for what Rome stood for. Rome consistently supported the rich against the poor in all foreign communities that fell under her sway; and, since the poor, so far, have always and everywhere been far more numerous than the rich, Rome’s policy made for inequality, for injustice, and for the least happiness of the greatest number."
- Arnold Toynbee (1961)
Wealth - Resources - Labour- Commerce - Geopolitical Power
What is at the Heart of the Darkness
“Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren...”
Mathew 25:40
Friendship, Kindness and Rightness
Diego Garcia and Haiti
Diego Garcia.
There are times when one tragedy tells us how a whole system works behind its democratic façade… To understand the catastrophe of Iraq, and all the other Iraqs along imperial history's trail of blood and tears, one need look no further than Diego Garcia.
- John Pilger
Empires do not have friends they have interests.
Wealth - Resources - Labour- Commerce - Geopolitical Power
Mask of Defence
The IDEA’s for the Iraq War
Weapons of Mass Destruction Democracy Security Global War on Terror Fighting them over there so we don’t have to fight them here. Reconstruction Winning Hearts and Minds Women’s Rights
Wealth - Resources - Labour- Commerce - Geopolitical Power
Empires do not have friends they have interests.
Wealth - Resources - Labour- Commerce - Geopolitical Power
“we could not allow in the case of Kosovo ethnic cleansing and genocide to happen right at the doorstep of Europe and do nothing about it.“
- Tony Blair
The Idea
Turkey
“… the US found itself "championing the very Islamic fundamentalist terrorist groups who are our mortal enemies elsewhere".
-US Army Colonel Harry Summers
NATO vs Yugoslavia
Argumentum Ad Hitlerum
The Butcher of Belgrade
Empires do not have friends they have interests.
Wealth - Resources - Labour- Commerce - Geopolitical Power
Ustasha – Croatian Nazis
Empires do not have friends they have interests.
Wealth - Resources - Labour- Commerce - Geopolitical Power
NATO vs Yugoslavia
Humanitarian Intervention
“Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren...”
Mathew 25:40
Empires do not have friends they have interests.
Wealth - Resources - Labour- Commerce - Geopolitical Power
The Idea
? Kosovo
Turkey Indonesia
? Kosovo
Turkey Indonesia
The “Butcher”, “Terrorist” “Madman”, “Dictator”
is the Pretext.
Control of wealth and geopolitics
is the Subtext.
Empires do not have friends they have interests.
Wealth - Resources - Labour- Commerce - Geopolitical Power
Member, German Bundestag Vice President, Parliamentary
Assembly of the OSCE
Empires do not have friends they have interests.
Wealth - Resources - Labour- Commerce - Geopolitical Power
Empires do not have friends they have interests. Empires do not have friends they have interests.
Wealth - Resources - Labour- Commerce - Geopolitical Power
charging senior members
Empires do not have friends they have interests. Empires do not have friends they have interests.
Wealth - Resources - Labour- Commerce
Trepca Mines
Empires do not have friends they have interests. Empires do not have friends they have interests.
Wealth - Resources - Labour- Commerce
Mining in the Congo
Empires do not have friends they have interests.
Wealth - Resources - Labour- Commerce
Empires do not have friends they have interests.
Wealth - Resources - Labour- Commerce
Empires do not have friends they have interests. Empires do not have friends they have interests.
Wealth - Resources - Labour- Commerce
George Orwell:
“… an empire is primarily a money-making concern...
the ‘box-wallah’ [business man] calls the tune.”
Adam Smith:
[maintaining an empire is for] “…the private interest of the governing part of it.”
The IDEA for the Afghanistan War
War on Terror Peace Keeping Democracy Fighting them over there so we don’t have to fight them here. Women’s Rights The Mission Canada doesn’t cut and run. Reconstruction Winning Hearts and Minds
Summary
A Case Study
Empires do not have friends they have interests.
Wealth - Resources - Labour- Commerce - Geopolitical Power
Divide and Conquer Divide and Rule
Divide and Leave (or not)
The Myth of Imperial Morality Plays
U.S. – Saudi Salafi / Wahhabi
Proxy Fighters
Illegal Drugs
Petrodollars
Allies attack former ‘friends’
“The comforts of the rich require a great many poor.”
- Voltaire
Sea Lane Choke Points
The “Barbarians” Periphery and Containment
Canadian Forces In Afghanistan
Proxy Fighters Brief Cases of Cash
Pipelines
The Scramble for Wealth/Resources
Questions
Discussion
The Face of Empire. Empires do not have friends they have interests.
Wealth - Resources - Labour- Commerce
Faces of Empire