We are now at a critical point in the history of imperialism. The US-led imperialist bloc is facing a challenge with the emergence of a more multi-polar world, led by the rise of China and alternative institutions such as the BRICS and the Belt and Road Initiative. However, imperialism is not taking this lying down, and this poses serious dangers for the planet and humanity as a whole.
The US-led imperialist bloc is far and away the leader in military power. 53.6% of global military spending is by the US alone; when including its NATO and other allies such as Japan, the figure is 74%. The US has a total of 902 overseas bases – including Shannon Airport. For comparison, China has one, in Djibouti, East Africa. Per person, the US spends 21 times more on military spending than China.
Aside from an almost complete monopoly on military power, the US intelligence agencies exercise a leading role. The CIA has the ability, and willingness, to monitor and interfere across the world. Its ability to turn protest movements into regime-change operations, such as in Venezuela, Cuba, Iran, and Syria, is unmatched.
Additionally, the National Endowment for Democracy plays a critical role in supporting NGOs and acts as a powerful cultural and ideological weapon of imperialism. Examples of its role include paying rappers in Cuba to make counter-revolutionary lyrics, funding Venezuelan opposition groups in anti-government riots, and supporting Ukrainian neo-Nazis coming to power in 2014.
Even the Internet itself is not outside imperialism’s control. The modern internet has its origins in a project by the Pentagon agency DARPA, based in northern Virginia, an area with the largest concentration of data centres in the world. Most global digital data flows through fibre-optic cables to several strategic “chokepoints” which are based in the US. This, along with the willing or coerced participation of private telecommunications companies, allows the US NSA to monitor the world’s data and communication.
The world financial system is controlled through the use of the CHIPS system, allowing ‘dollar clearance’ through the world’s primary currency. The SWIFT system, used for financial transactions internationally, is a good example of how Washington controls global finance. While based in Belgium, the SWIFT system uses data centres based in the previously mentioned chokepoint in Virginia, allowing the US unchallenged insight and control over global payments. The World Bank and IMF are American-controlled institutions.
US control of global finance is what allows it to maintain its hegemony and keep countries under the control of imperialism. States such as Cuba, Venezuela, Iran, and the DPR Korea are key targets of economic warfare. French bank BNP Paribas paid 9 billion dollars in fines to the US Department of the Treasury in 2014 for violating sanctions against Cuba and Iran. Hong Kong-based HSBC was fined 2 billion dollars in 2012 for also violating sanctions. The US Department of Commerce has the ability to block foreign companies from exporting products which have more than 25% American intellectual property.
Even supposed allies can be whipped into line. The 1985 Plaza Accords between the US and Japan led to Japan’s economic stagnation, with a boost in military spending – of US equipment – being the supposed solution, similar to German military spending plans. Coincidentally, Germany and Japan are numbers one and two in number of US bases. Other countries such as Afghanistan, Russia, Cuba, Iran, and Syria have had their assets seized by the US Office of Foreign Assets Control.
Added to military and economic dominance is the cultural and ideological dominance exercised by the empire. Hollywood movies, TV series, video games, music and other entertainment promote American values – individualism, profit-seeking, militarism, racism and sexism – globally. This is a classic trait of empires, making its subjects look at the world through the eyes of the coloniser. It is the capitalist class that is the most integrated and united within the imperialist structures.
Altogether, the US-led, and US-dominated, imperialist bloc exercises an almost total monopoly of global military power, global communications, international trade and finance, alongside an overwhelming dominance of a hegemony-industrial complex controlling what the peoples of the Global South and North hear, see and think.
Supporting the US empire are the subordinate imperialist powers, such as Britain and other European powers. Despite some friction over Greenland, the EU and Britain have no interest in breaking with Washington; they are content to let the empire be the vanguard of the imperialist stage of capitalism.An important paper published by the Tricontinental Institute for Social Research, titled Hyper-Imperialism: A Dangerous Decadent New Stage, is critical reading for Marxists and all who want to understand, and change, the world.
