Time for a new Imperialism?

A few weeks ago in The Independant, an article ran about senior foreign policy advisor to Tony Blair calling for “a new kind of imperialism”.

The advisor apparently listed all sorts of reasons for this new imperialism, which have a remarkable resemblence to the old arguments for imperialism:

  1. It is the task of liberal democracies to “bring order” to the rest of the world
  2. “the weak still need the strong and the strong still need an orderly world. A world in which the efficient and well-governed export stability and liberty”
  3. The post-modern EU offers a vision of co-operative empire. Like Rome, this commonwealth would provide its citizens with some of its laws, some coins and the occasional road.”

Not surprisingly, there are some choice responses to this, likening the advisor to Rasputin (actually, worse than Rasputin), and comparing this “liberal imperialism” to “elightened slavery”.

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