Alain Joxe’s Empire of Disorder is a deeply problematic book. The author often comes off as a pompous ass, he is overly Franco- and Eurocentric (and I mean that in the worst possible way), and his theorizations are often annoyingly opaque. But this is still a worthwhile book, because of one thing: Joxe is very clear on the vile nature of the current, US-sponsored world system, with its toxic combination of “free-market” economics and predatory military adventurism. He shows how the US insists on having its way everywhere in the world, whether through economic coercion or overwhelming military force, but without even offering the protection that past empires (Rome, Austria-Hungary, etc) at least provided to their subjugated peoples. The result is a new world disorder: the vicious ethnic conflicts (Bosnia, Rwanda, Chechenya) and Mafia- or druglord-sponsored civil wars (Columbia) that have sprung up in the poorer (and not only the poorer) parts of the world since the fall of the Soviet Union are direct results of American imperial ambitions. By imposing the “free market” under conditions that devastate whole peoples, and by using our military might so capriciously, we have undermined any possiblity for democracy, civil society, and the peaceful resolution of conflicts over large parts of the globe. Joxe is not wrong in describing the American Empire (the gentler version under Clinton, no less than the meaner version under Bush) as fascistic and genocidal in terms of its effects (and perhaps even in terms of its overt intentions).
Empire of Disorder
Alain Joxe’s Empire of Disorder is a deeply problematic book. The author often comes off as a pompous ass, he is overly Franco- and Eurocentric (and I mean that in the worst possible way), and his theorizations are often annoyingly opaque. But this is still a worthwhile book, because of one thing: Joxe is very clear on the vile nature of the current, US-sponsored world system, with its toxic combination of “free-market” economics and predatory military adventurism. He shows how the US insists on having its way everywhere in the world, whether through economic coercion or overwhelming military force, but without even offering the protection that past empires (Rome, Austria-Hungary, etc) at least provided to their subjugated peoples. The result is a new world disorder: the vicious ethnic conflicts (Bosnia, Rwanda, Chechenya) and Mafia- or druglord-sponsored civil wars (Columbia) that have sprung up in the poorer (and not only the poorer) parts of the world since the fall of the Soviet Union are direct results of American imperial ambitions. By imposing the “free market” under conditions that devastate whole peoples, and by using our military might so capriciously, we have undermined any possiblity for democracy, civil society, and the peaceful resolution of conflicts over large parts of the globe. Joxe is not wrong in describing the American Empire (the gentler version under Clinton, no less than the meaner version under Bush) as fascistic and genocidal in terms of its effects (and perhaps even in terms of its overt intentions).