From an isolationist nation at the end of World war One, the US today has bases in over ninety countries. No other nation has been able to project military power as the US does today. But is such an involvement sustainable? Despite its might, the US is shrinking in terms of population and economic power in relation to the rest of the world. So, what would happen should the United States leave the international scene, and become again a “normal nation”, a republic, and not an empire? To find an answer to this question, director and producer Mitch Anderson embarked on an investigative trip on three continents. The film is an in-depth investigation of how US foreign policy affects the lives of millions of people around the world. Future scenarios in the absence of the US intervention are well debated and substantiated by experts and ordinary citizens whose lives have been affected by the American presence in different regions. The film is conclusive, politically charged and opinionated, making for good drama while staying true to the facts and journalistic integrity. Niall Ferguson PHD anchors the film.
Niall Ferguson PhD - is a well-known and widely published British historian of modern imperialism. He is the Laurence A. Tisch Professor of History at Harvard University, a Senior Research Fellow of Jesus College, Oxford University and a Senior Fellow of the Hoover Institution, Stanford University. He is a specialist in financial and economic history. Ferguson has earned a reputation as a revisionist. Ferguson’s eminence in journalism has led him to be compared to A.J.P. Taylor, though the comparison is not entirely apt: there is a wide gulf between the beliefs and methods of Ferguson and Taylor.
You can watch the trailer at YouTube.
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A World Without Power
Critics of U.S. global dominance should pause and consider the alternative. If the United States retreats from its hegemonic role, who would supplant it? Not Europe, not China, not the Muslim world—and certainly not the United Nations. Unfortunately, the alternative to a single superpower is not a multilateral utopia, but the anarchic nightmare of a new Dark Age.
Original article published in the July/August 2004 edition of Foreign Policy magazine.
By Niall Ferguson
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