Beyond Conspiracy Theory

The article We Have Created the World’s First Truly Global Empire (Democracy Now!) is an interview with “Self-Described Economic Hit Man” John Perkins. He’s a former NSA employee who spent a couple of dozen years of his life playing loan shark to various countries around the world.

“We economic hit men, during the last 30 or 40 years, have really created the world’s first truly global empire, and we’ve done this primarily through economics, and the military only coming in as a last resort. Therefore, it’s been done pretty much secretly.”

The “secretly” part applies only to Americans, who are trained from birth to completely disavow any claims of American hegemony, accepting instead a contrived portrayal of an underdog locked in gritty conflict with evil. The notion that the US represents, for most of the world, exactly the kind of evil that it purports to fight doesn’t ever come up. It’s not an issue because it cannot exist—it will not fit into the picture of world we have.

What is an Empire?

The word empire generally brings legions of troops marching in lockstep, most likely with the roaring flames of a city ablaze in the background. We have biblical, movie-inspired notions of empire. The stranglehold of empire cannot long be imposed solely with military might. The larger, longer-lasting empires have all used different approaches to maintaining and extending their empires. The Roman Empire conquered through military might, but immediately turned all conquered peoples into citizens of Rome. This gave them them the idea that, in defeat, they had gained something valuable. The British Empire, at its height, had very few troops, relying heavily on local muscle and strong organization to keep the money flowing back home. That’s primarily what an empire does—it funnels wealth back to the conquerors.

The United States has continued transforming the notion of empire until troops are involved only in extreme cases—and linger in the background as an implicit threat should opinions differ. The various world institutions, like the IMF, the World Bank[1] and larger consulting firms are all part and parcel of the system by which the US exerts its control over its empire. So how does it work?

Building an Economic Empire

Choose a target

Look around for a country that “has resources that our corporations covet, like oil”, other mineral resources, cheap land, cheap labor, etc.[2] It’s important to remember who the primary beneficiaries of American empire are: large corporations that invest their money wisely in a political system that sells itself quite cheaply. It is these institutions that are the primary drivers behind US foreign policy.

Be Generous…

It’s important to maintain the moral high ground, so start the relationship with what looks like a gift: “arrange a huge loan … from an organization like the World Bank”. This is the part of empire that is allowed to filter back to the folks at home—it forms the myth of American generosity.[3] This loan sounds like an enormous benefit for the country, as it will build infrastructure. Infrastructure is important in that it helps the country lift itself out of the benighted world of despair in which it found itself before the altruistic beneficence of the US alighted on its weary brow.

…To the Right People

The sale of infrastructure is a breeze, as the US also makes sure to talk only to the movers and shakers who give life to the country—not the poor trash who are eagerly trying to suckle at the budding socialist teat that preceded its arrival. This infrastructure often takes the form of “power plants, highways, ports, industrial parks, things that serve the very rich and seldom even reach the poor”. The real beauty of this plan is that the infrastructure seldom fits into the country[4] and—get this—there are no local companies capable of building it. That means that American firms, like Bechtel, Halliburton, the Carlyle Group and others of that ilk, can swoop in and funnel all of that borrowed money right back to the US, turning a public loan into private profit and enslaving another country with interest—all at the same time!

Turn the Screw

As if that wan’t enough profit for an empire, now’s the time to start talking about repayment. Since the poor aren’t really helping themselves, it only seems fair to cut “education, health, and other social services” in favor of paying back the altruists who were only trying to help. Since the weight of the debt is often crushing for the poorer countries—some African nations spend over half of their GDP just on interest on their loans—the US does the Godfather thing and “makes [them] an offer [they] can’t refuse”. This is where the empire becomes self-supporting; it has transformed taxpayer money into corporate profits and influence. This influence can be cashed in many ways, like “[s]ell our oil companies your oil real cheap or vote with us at the next U.N. vote or send troops in support of ours…”. With the last option, the US has actually parlayed pressure in one corner of the empire into pressure on another corner.

Separate Message and Messenger

In the interview, Mr. Perkins details specific examples from South America, in which any sign of socialism or concern for the mass of people in a country is stymied. The people are only important insofar as they need to be healthy enough to provide cheap, reliable labor. The rights of corporations are naturally to be satisfied first. It is only with the recent war in Iraq that the US has been too distracted to exact the needed pressure in other corners of its kingdom. Thus the rising number of more left-leaning governments in South America.

Some of the stories he tells are hard to believe because they sound too far-fetched to possibly be true. He tells of sex traps and assassination attempts and wild, James Bond-type stuff—reminiscent of another author with good ideas, but a self-aggrandizing way of delivering them, Greg Palast. Whether he exaggerates details to sell his book is neither here nor there; the fact that he has published his book and not been sued for libel speaks for its veracity.

This has been going on long before either of the Bushes came to power and continues unabated regardless of which party or person holds the reins of America. In light of this, the government of America as determined by the constitution has far less to do with its external influence than large corporations and unelected organizations like the CIA and NSA. It is these entities that lay the groundwork for foreign policy and make even the best of intentions unworkable and the worst of intentions inevitable.