The American Military Imperialism

This assignment analyses the USA’s military imperialism, and how much successful it has been in the modern years. The study will analyse the various conflicts that USA has taken part in to establish its global dominance through political strategies and military dominance. The discussion is to analyse the different causes that led to the USA’s rise to power and it has developed its imperialistic viewpoint of dominating the world.

Running head: THE AMERICAN MILITARY IMPERIALISM
THE AMERICAN MILITARY IMPERIALISM
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Executive Summary:
The purpose of this assignment is to study the USA’s military imperialism, and how much
successful it has been in the modern years. The study will analyse the various conflicts that
USA has taken part in to establish its global dominance through political strategies and
military dominance. The discussion is to analyse the different causes that led to the USA’s
rise to power and it has developed its imperialistic viewpoint of dominating the world.
Moreover, America’s extension of political help and military assistance to different countries
at different points of time, and how these strategies played a major part in America’s world
dominance are also to be analysed. America’s active participation in world politics and
voluntary involvement in countering terrorism and gaining world dominance, which help
spread American military imperialism, is also the topic of discussion. Finally, the conclusion
of this analysis will assert USA’s success in establishing military imperialism in the world.

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Table of Contents
Introduction:...............................................................................................................................3
Discussion:.................................................................................................................................3
The History of US Imperialism:.............................................................................................3
USA’s military Imperialism and the Cold War:....................................................................5
The effect of US imperialism in North Korean relations:......................................................6
American influence in the Middle East:.................................................................................8
Conclusion:................................................................................................................................8
Reference:................................................................................................................................10

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Introduction:
American Imperialism is one of the major policies that has influenced the world
politics in the twentieth century and is dominantly active in the recent years. It aims at
reaching out and extending political, military, economic and cultural countries to countries
beyond the American borders and establishing the United States government control. The
concept of US imperialism has involved economic intervention, political influence, military
subjugation, and corporate domination for influencing foreign powers to accept USA as its
prime ally and accept its policy making decisions and advises in regards to running the
government (Maskovsky & Susser, 2015). The prime focus of the discussion is to analyse
how successful has the USA’s military imperialism been over the years. Judging the direct
conflicts and the military tensions that has occurred between the USA and several other
countries such as USSR, North Korea, Middle Eastern nations and several others, the study is
to be analysed. In the process, the focus will be on the different political scenarios and the
actions taken by the USA government in response to those, to extend their domination over
the other nations. These will also help to assert how the political relations has affected the
socio economic and political lives of the people of these nations. From the above discussion,
a recommendation is to be produced from a neutral point of view to develop better relations
for the healthy growth of the socio political and economic relations of the countries. Finally,
a conclusion is to be drawn from the analysis, which will summarise the past and present
situations and how US military imperialism has successfully played a major role in the
influence of the global political scenario.

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Discussion:
The History of US Imperialism:
The history of US Imperialism dates back to the nineteenth century which resulted in
the USA to annex 525,000 square miles of Mexican territory in the wake of the Manifest
destiny and resulted in the American-Mexican war of 1846 (Acuna, 2015). The term
American Imperialism might seem contradictory, as USA is one of the oldest democratic
republic of the modern world, but its policies from the advent of its establishment reflects the
very notion of imperialism. When the first English settlers arrived in America to forge a new
nation, the very idea of imperialism led to the clash with the Native American Indians. The
American sense of dominance has been the characteristic feature of the nation since the day
of its very establishment (Hook 2010). Even after American independence, Thomas Jefferson
bore the idea that USA should be the nest of all powers and from there should flow the
influence of freedom to the other countries (Lerner 2017). The imperialistic notion has
always been pre-dominant in the American civilization and has been imbibed with the idea of
the American dream. The ultimate freedom of the US civilization rests on the dominance of
other powers, which reduces the global threats towards America.
USA’s emergence as a world power happened after its active participation in the First
World War (Maurer 2013). USA’s dominance and military prowess led the then European
superpowers to accept its influence in major global decision making issues, for example the
Treaty of Versailles. The Second World War also proved American dominance when USA
dropped atomic bombs in Japan (Brau, 2017). The whole world was in awe of the American
military power and how much destruction it could make. The subsequent formation of the
United Nations and the NATO were also part of the American influence who played a major
role in the formation of these organisations (Cox & Stokes, 2012). USA had always had a

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major say in important matters of the decisions of these organisations and heavily influence
them for their own political and economic benefits.
Keeping aside the United Nations, if the focus is shifted to the formation of the
NATO, it can be seen as the effort of the USA to create a dominant military alliance to
counter the then powerful USSR during the Cold War era (Short, 2009). The military power
of the USA was seriously challenged by the USSR and led to several small instances of
violence in different parts of the world, one of the most important being the infamous
Vietnam War, which dealt a major blow to the USA’s military dominance. The USA and
USSR never clashed directly, but the competition for power led to a massive global tension
(Blum, 2014). Finally, the American imperialism came out victorious with prevalence and
influence over most countries of the world, which prevails, even to the present day.
USA’s military Imperialism and the Cold War:
The success of US imperialism cannot be judged without studying its policies and
strategies during the Cold War era. The Cold War can be considered a geo-political tension
between the USA and the then USSR. They formed the major superpowers after the Second
World War. With the fall of the European powers such as Britain and France, these two
nations sought to extend their military and political dominance all over the world. USA and
USSR were marked by several political and social differences (Davis, 2015). USSR was run
by the Marxist-Leninist ideas by the communist party which had complete control over the
media, press and the governance of the satellite states. They grew their domination by
funding several other states around the world to be inspired by the left wing politics. The
USA on the other hand ran on a more liberal form of presidential republic, backed by the
independent media and people free to exercise their rights. The USA took this advantage to
extend political and military assistance to the weaker states to form a world support against
the USSR (Troitiño, Färber & Boiro, 2017). The formation of NATO was one such strategic

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move. The NATO alliance ensured America’s military presence in the European continent,
thus extending in military imperialism over a major part of the world.
However, the two powers never directly clashed with each other but backed several
small wars in different parts of the world known as proxy wars to develop their military
imperialism. While the USSR tried to corner USA by backing several small states against
USA’s imperialistic policies, USA on the other hand extended strategic, political and military
assistance to small nations to fight off the communist oppression. Nations such as Japan,
South Korea, Greece and Israel were directly benefitted by the USA’s military influence.
USA was not successful, such as its crushing defeat in the Vietnam War (McNamara, 2017),
but it focused on the farfetched strategy of making a more predictable world political
structure with its military imperialism. Joint military exercises with the weaker nations and
assisting them to fight off terror, backed USA’s cause and led several small countries to
accept USA’s protection, in the process become a part of the USA’s imperialistic domination.
Eventually, the increase of pressure from around the world, and tightening holds in
the satellite states of the satellite states of the USSR, belittled USSR’s argument of American
imperialism. The Cuban Missile crisis sparked a lot of criticism against the USSR from all
over the world (Abrams, 2017). The increasing protests against the mechanisms of the Cold
War, and nuclear disarmaments put a lot of pressure on the USSR, which was already
suffering from an economic stagnation. The emergence of Mikhail Gorbachev, as USSR’s
new liberal leader softened their issue (Piirimäe & Mälksoo, 2016). He was solely against the
use of Russian troops in crushing protests. His openness and peaceful attitude, USA’s
growing influence in the Eastern Europe ultimately caused the collapse of the USSR, leaving
USA as the only superpower in the world. The USA’s military imperialism was highly
successful in paving such a great world dominance.

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The effect of US imperialism in North Korean relations:
The Cold War, which played a major role in the establishment of USA as the major
imperialistic superpower, also led to its hostile relation with North Korea. The relationship
between the two nations started deteriorating after the Second World War, when the United
Nations divided Korea. The measure was a temporary one, but the unification never occurred
due to the hostility between the USA and the USSR. South Korea was the bastion of US
military troops while North Korea was under the control of the USSR. The influence of the
Soviet military government created a negative attitude in the North Korean population against
the USA, which was to intensify in the years to follow.
The constant military influence and presence in South Korea, has always been a
problem for the North Korean government and USSR at the same time. Taking advantage of
the Cold War situation, the USA military along with the help of UN forces occupied North
Korea with the intention of setting a new government for them, but North Korea was
determined not to bow to the American imperialism. North Korea posed stiff challenge to the
US military dominance over time.
The later crisis between the two nations started in the post-Cold War period when
America was highly concerned with North Korea’s step in the nuclear world. The Nuclear
weapons were considered the show of prowess for the USA and its allies, but with the North
Koreans getting hold of nuclear arsenal was a concern for USA. Both the countries
completely shut down each other, on the terms of political relations and very few bilateral
talks were held by the two nations during this age. However, in the meantime America had
been influencing the other world powers of the dangers that North Korea could pose to the
world in the race of the nuclear armament. America had led the Six-Party Talks in 2007
where USA convinced Russia, China, Japan and the two other Koreas to sit for a conference
to develop international political relations with North Korea (Buszynski, 2013). North Korea

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was convinced to shut down its nuclear facilities and in turn, USA agreed to aid North Korea
in attaining political and trade importance in the global market. America after six decades
lifted the political ban on North Korea, from the list of state sponsored terrorism (Preble,
2009). The American population welcomed the diplomatic favours towards North Korea as
the alternate to the harsh military actions.
The power of American imperialism can once again be seen in this case. In 2013,
North Korea threatened the US with ballistic missiles and nuclear ICBMs (Chanlett-Avery &
Rinehart, 2013). The American response with friendly military drills in international waters
along the Korean Peninsula was a mere show of strength to warn Korea of its military
dominance. US military imperialism has cornered North Korea from every sphere,
successfully shutting them from the rest of the world, but North Korea still today poses
challenge to American imperialism, fully aware of the American military strength, and how it
could be matter of seconds for USA to crush them.
American influence in the Middle East:
The Soviet-Afghan wars in the Cold War period gave rise to a new era of fundamental
Muslim terrorism. The 9/11 incident, shocked the world and dealt a major blow to the pride
of American imperialism. The American government responded with full military response
routing the Taliban outfit from Afghanistan and Pakistan. America’s invasion of Iraq in the
name of removing Saddam Hossain and countering state sponsored terrorism helped the USA
gain foothold in the Middle Eastern countries of Asia (Ballard, Lamm & Wood, 2012).
America’s political influence and involving the NATO in such military operations shadowed
USA’s underlying motive of spreading its military imperialism in the oil rich countries. These
operations were presented as counter terrorism activities and gained world support.
America’s world domination was successful one again.

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Conclusion:
The discussion hence provides a brief analysis of the several case scenarios where
USA had influenced political strategies and used military power to spread imperialism and
world dominance. Beginning from the Cold War, where USA maintained the image of a
liberal nation to corner the fundamental Marxist ideas of the USSR. USA’s extension of
political support and military assistance to smaller nations oppressed by USSR let them gain
foothold as the world superpower. Challenging USSR’s nuclear armament with its own
nuclear tests and creating a global pressure on the USSR against the Cuban missile crisis
played a major part of the USA’s strategies to spread its imperialism in the whole world. The
formation of NATO was the chief instrument in spreading the American military imperialistic
domination all over the world, by being present politically and in military in almost every
nation of the world. Moreover, the constant crisis with North Korea and cornering them is yet
another example of the American imperialism. North Korea, which poses a great threat to
USA’s motive of world domination, has been strategically shut down by the USA. Strong
presence of USA military in South Korea and Japan has cornered North Korea and placed
them under a political siege, where no other nation has the courage to deal with North Korea,
bypassing USA. Lastly, USA’s direct involvement in the Middle Eastern nations along with
NATO forces to curb to fundamental terrorism can be seen as another approach of America
to establish its military dominance in the oil rich countries to politically gain control of the
Middle Eastern wealth. The above discussion hence concludes on the note, establishing the
USA as the major superpower in the world politics where it has successfully spread its world
dominance with its strong and successful military imperialistic values.

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diplomacy, and internal situation. Current Politics and Economics of Northern
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