Pox Americana

Exposing the American Empire

John Bellamy Foster and Robert W. McChesney eds., Pluto, 192 pages, paperback, £12.99

This book tries to explain why we are living through a particularly aggressive phase of world politics, epitomised by the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. The main reason suggested is the weakness of the United States.

For most of the contributors, the US lost its dominance or "hegemony" in the 1970s. Although it imposed the Washington Consensus, globalisation and neo-liberalism on the rest of the world, the US failed to get out of its impasse.

One of the contributors, Immanuel Wallerstein, believes that the rivals to the US in Europe and Asia will grow in strength. In particular he predicts the emergence of a "Paris/Berlin/Moscow alliance" and a "chaotic" world situation for "the next 20 or 30 years".

The evidence for this perspective is noticeably thin, but the book is at least thought provoking and clearly written.