IN DEFENCE OF EMPIRES¹

Abstract

This article argues the case for empires. They provided global order in the nineteenth century. Their dissolution in the twentieth century resulted in global disorder. A blind spot in the classical liberal tradition was its assumption that international order would be a spontaneous by‐product of limited government and unilateral free trade practised at home. This denial of power politics flowed into twentieth‐century Wilsonianism. Now, there is no alternative to US imperial power to supply the global Pax. Whether the USA is willing to fulfil this role is open to question.