Cailean Bochanan
15th november, 2008
Ever since 9/11 and the subsequent invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, the world has been suspended between two possible outcomes: on the one hand, a reinforced US hegemony and on the other a sort of counter-globalisation movement at the core of which lay the reassertion of national sovereignty in the face of empire. Even as the coalition got bogged down in both Iraq and Afghanistan, the terrifying possibility remained of an escalation towards global war provoked by an attack on Iran, and at certain points this scenario may have been a lot closer to becoming a reality than the wider world realized. In addition, the collapse of the Anglo-American financial system opened the possibility of a wave of financial chaos spreading out from the imperial heartlands destabilising the world economy and inaugurating a neo-feudal dark age. The aggressive and arrogant stance of Washington and London and doubts about European leadership, in particular, left one fearing what further cards the empire had left to play. That has now been clarified: they have none.
In These New Times 