ABSTRACT
One of the great paradoxes of history is the claim of imperialist politicians to be engaged in a great humanitarian crusade, a historic “civilizing mission” designed to liberate nations and peoples, while practicing the most barbaric conquests, destructive wars and large-scale bloodletting of conquered people in historical memory. In the modern capitalist era, the ideological foundations of imperial rule has changed over time, from the early appeals to “the right” to wealth, power, colonies and grandeur to claims of a “civilizing mission” on behalf of the forces of freedom and democracy. More recently, the machinations of imperial rule have propagated diverse justifications adapted to specific contexts, adversaries, circumstances and audiences. This chapter reviews and briefly analyzes some elements of this shift in the construction of contemporary imperial ideology. At issue here are a series of arguments advanced in the project of legitimizing a policy of wars and sanctions by the US and its allies to sustain the dominion of the forces of freedom and US hegemony over these forces.
