After the Empire: The Breakdown of the American Order

by Emmanuel Todd

Book Overview

Widely reviewed and critically praised, Emmanuel Todd's After the Empire predicts that the United States is forfeiting its superpower status as it moves away from traditional democratic values of egalitarianism and universalism, lives far beyond its means economically, and continues to anger foreign allies and enemies alike with its military and ideological policies. As America's global dominance evaporates, Todd foresees the emergence of a Eurasian...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 023113102X
• ISBN13: 9780231131025
• Release Date: December 2003
• Publisher: Columbia University Press
• Length: 192 Pages
• Weight: 1.01 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 5.9" x 8.5"
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

Interesting view of the future and not what I expected

According to the hype, Emmanuel Todd is a leftist anti-American writer predicting the doom of the United States, with readers responding yea or nay according to their politics. In point of fact, Todd has a reputation as an Americanist and explicitly prefers Francis Fukuyama to Noam Chomsky. He also expresses great admiration for America in the Cold War. As with Fukuyama, Todd argues that nations follow a common course in modernization. As a nation modernizes and it's population grows more literate, population first grows rapidly and then levels off as birth rates drop (he notes that this is happening already in Iran.) There is a period of political turmoil but the long term trend is toward democracy. The exact form depends on culture - Todd expects Islamic fundamentalism to give way to democracy but not along American lines. Contrary to other reviews, he does not attribute American decline to dropping birth rates and in fact notes that the United States (like France and Great Britain) has a relatively high birth rate for a developed nation. He attributes this to a more libertarian culture. There are clear implications for the war on terror. If Islamic fundamentalism will burn out in a generation or two, the logical policy response is Cold War style deterrence and containment until the Mideast reforms itself. Naturally Todd does not approve of Bush's strategy. Todd argues there is an American Empire in the sense that the United States draws a kind of tribute from the world shown in our current account deficit. Because the United States is the center of the current world system, it draws in investors looking for a safe haven and thus allows us to live beyond our means. He sees this system as doomed for three major reasons - the United States no longer has a competitive economy, the United States can't win ground wars and American political culture is becoming more incompatible with an empire. Thus the United States engages in small, show wars to create an appearance of strength where it is lacking. Todd's proof of American economic weakness is the trade deficit - Americans don't make things the world wants to buy. A steady flow of foreign currency - $600 billion a year as of 2005 - is necessary to maintain current standards of living. The high American GDP is an illusion based on services that are hard to assign concrete values to. His prime example is Enron - valued by the market at over $100 billion, starring for years on business covers but it all turned out to be smoke and mirrors. Sooner or later reality will catch up and the United States will have to live within it's means. I'm not sure how valid his criticisms of the American economy are. However, it does seem odd for a supposedly competitive economy to need to borrow so much and the example of Enron is undeniable. The discussion of military weakness is more controversial. Todd has respect for American air and sea power but sees American ground forces as weak, now and in the past. He wa

Let's Hope This Man Is Right

Similarly to Todd himself, I found myself over the years the sole defender of America to most of my friends throughout Europe and Australasia. There was a time when I hoped that my country, the UK, would join with the US and abandon any moves towards Europe. However, as Todd points out, much has changed. America the once semi-democratic nation that defended the 'free-world' has now become a problem itself. As some of the American reviewers here demonstrate admirably, the mass of American people are woefully ignorant of most things outside their sphere of day to day life. Flying to the UK just a few weeks ago, the Canadian man sitting next to me explained how being able to receive both US and Canadian news channels he could see how little information the American people were actually getting from their networks. America is rapidly turning into a neo-fascist monolith full of frightened, ignorant and corpulent individuals. What is clearly needed is a complete restructuring of the American media so that at least the people will be able to make informed decisions based on fact and not propaganda. If America wishes to be the 'hyperpower' that many in the current administration already believe it to be - it must earn this right from the rest of the world because, contrary to popular neo-conservative belief, the rest of the world will not allow a militant America to stormtroop across the globe at whim. Todd's book admirably provides us with the alternative scenario if America is unable to change. It's well worth reading - particularly if you are an American because your great nation has produced so many wonderful individuals in the past who have helped to make the world a much better place, and it would be a veritable tragedy to throw all this away with abandon. The heart and soul of America appears to be under intense internal threat from a fusion of the Straussian ideologues in the White House, and the right-wing fundamentalist Christians of the Dominionism heresy. It's imperative that mainstream Americans grab their country back with urgency so that we can welcome them with open arms back into the international arena. Hopefully Todd's book will help to urge them on.

Excellent Analysis of What I Have Feared For Many Years

I have feared the great dependence of the U.S. on purchases of our Treasury Bills by the very nations that support our overindulgences as a nation. It has been obvious that they must loan money to the U.S. in the form of treasury bills in order for us to purchase their goods. My fear has revolved around what happens when these nations stop buying the treasuries or even worse when they start selling them. While the author does not address the treasury problem directly, he develops a thesis that supports my fears. He spends a lot of time developing a thesis of the world becoming fed up with U.S. militarism being used to protect us from our economic weaknesses. As a result, he foresees an eventual Europe, Russia, and Japan axis of world power. Russia is part of the axis as an oil and gas producer, but most important of all because it will be the nuclear deterrent against the U.S. He acknowledges China's growing strength, but does not address how they will fit into the puzzle. While the author's conclusions may appear somewhat farfetched, one cannot come away with a feeling after reading this book that something of the order of what he proposes could come true. The fact that this book was a bestseller in France and Germany is reason enough for Americans to read this book.

A Frechie Skewers Drunken-Sailor Diplomacy, and more...

For Americans used to reading narcissitic volumes from either the right or the left, this book is fantastic. I don't pretend to know the economic trajectories of Russia, or the politcal contours of Japan, or other such wide-ranging topics; so I can't say whether his interpretation of the global picture is correct or not. But what I can say is that many of his characterizations of America ring true. He calls the US the "arsonist-fireman" of the globe, stirring up trouble in little countries just so we (well, Bechtel and Halliburton really, but close enough) can then ride in on the white horse and fix everything that we broke. His description of our foreign policy since the end of the Cold War as "drunken-sailor diplomacy" (a kind of clumsy, non-unified staggering about the planet) is a refreshing antidote to the usual elite conspiracy theories of the American left.But maybe most importantly, and probably what offends many of the reviewers here, is that Todd doesn't take America all that seriously. He certainly DOES acknowledge our military might (save the Army) and relative economic security at the moment, inegalitarian as it may be. But he feels that the general policy direction that American leaders have taken (both Democrats and Republicans) will render the United States increasingly superfluous. And I would have to agree. The end of the Cold War provided an opportunity to dismantle most of our military and turn our focus back inwards, towards self-sufficiency and ecological sustainability. But instead, we have preserved our Cold War global military reach (over 700 acknowledged military bases in over 130 countries), fudged around both openly and covertly in countries everywhere, morphed the evil communism threat into an evil network of satanic terrorists, and allowed a regal corporate plutocracy to emerge at home. As American citizens, it's our job to throw out the bozos, both Republicans and Democrats, who are leading this country into irrelevance. Rising per capita income and American corporate competitiveness doesn't help the US if all the rewards are reaped by the elite, leaving the rabble with obese bodies, swollen prisons, 4-hour daily commutes, and negative net worth (all realities right now for many Americans).Be brave! Buy this book, read it, and pass it on. It's a new perspective worth considering. Besides, all those Germans and Frenchmen can't be wrong.

Interesting ideas even if he is wrong

This book has been a best seller in Europe and is only recently available in English. I heard about it from a politically astute friend in Germany.Emmanuel Todd, who is French, offers a fascinating perspective on world political trends. The United States is the focus of the book but the book also deals with several other countries and regions.One of Todd's theories is that the United States can't succeed as an empire because it doesn't have the productivity to do so. Other developed areas of the world that have been dependent on the United States and have supported the U.S. with investment dollars will soon discover that they no longer need us.Todd believes the theocracies we see in many Muslim nations are only a temporary phenomenon that will be replaced by democracy in this century. He uses information on literacy and birth rates to argue that this conversion is already underway.Todd has some interesting ideas about the relationship between family structures and political systems. He suggests that democracy will take a number of forms, depending on the culture of the country.Todd's credentials include a book he wrote in 1976 predicting the fall of the Soviet empire.Even is his ideas are wrong, they are interesting and provocative.