AN empire is a central state controlling vast territories, usually through military conquest. 

Empires are expensive to maintain. They age over time and lose their sense of cohesion. They fall because the state itself ceases to exist or its power is reduced. 

The Roman Empire and the Han Dynasty were dominant and seemingly indestructible but experienced cost and cohesion problems.

According to John Bagot Glubb in his 1978 book, The Fate of Empires and the Search for Survival, the average lifespan of an empire is 250 years. It goes through seven stages: outburst, conquest, commerce, affluence, intellect, decadence and decline.

Its economic decline is due to constant expansion. It creates social distress and inflation, resulting in unrest and conflict.  The British Empire could not maintain control over its colonies and eventually, India and North America revolted.

Empires are designed to have control and their decline are often due to the fight to be the most powerful. The French Revolution destabilised the Church’s influence and paved the way for Napoleon to rise and conquer the Roman Empire. 

Corruption, corpulence and greed invariably set in. 

Superpowers decline through “imperial overstretch” when military expansion and defence costs exceed fiscal means. 

The sole remaining superpower is heading toward the end of its history. The signs are all there. Its inability to impose its will on insignificant powers such as Somalia, Serbia, or East Timor suggests that. Multinational corporations now manipulate the global economy.

They exploit the whole world with impunity. Will they be allowed to carry on? 

Since the 19th century, America has interfered overtly and covertly in many foreign governments.

The American Revolution waged by the colonies against Britain influenced political ideas and revolutions around the globe.

The US Constitution calls for justice, good governance and laws, and liberty.

After the fall of the Soviet Union, America led or supported wars to determine the governance of a number of countries. Justifications include fighting the War on Terror in Afghanistan and removing weapons of mass destruction (WMD) in Iraq. 

What was the outcome? In Afghanistan, an estimated 241,000 people died as a direct result of the war and hundreds of thousands more, mostly civilians died of hunger, disease and injury. No trace of WMD was found in Iraq. 

The US has also waged trade wars and imposed its authority through sanctions.

Competition is not permitted and China’s rise is seen as a threat. 

The US poverty rate is the highest in the developed world. It spends too little on domestic programmes and too much on military and foreign aid. Rising inequality, unaffordable healthcare, climate change, failing education, crumbling infrastructures and the state of its “moral values” are causes for concern.

Its violent crime, illegitimate birth, divorce and teenage suicide rates are alarming.

According to a 2021 survey compiled by YouGov, Nationscape and the Voter Study Group, 36% of Republican and 33% of Democrat respondents say that they “feel justified to use violence to advance political goals”.

Israelis live beyond the “internationally recognised” borders of their state, on Palestinian land, but anti-Semitism is wrong.

The US spends money it doesn’t have. Its national debt stands at US$31.6 t(RM141.4) rillion and counting. It can “print money” but other countries cannot do the same.

It is the world’s largest debtor nation.

The decline has started. Many aspects of the country now resemble the late Soviet Union: intensification of social conflict, ethnic/racial rivalries and economic decline.

Stop the wars and killings. Bring back people of conscience in line with the constitution.

What say you? – March 7, 2023.

* Saleh Mohammed reads The Malaysian Insight.

* This is the opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insight. Article may be edited for brevity and clarity.