Just beneath the glitter of the Reagan years, the economic position of the United States continued to deteriorate. The United States had long touted its status as a creditor nation as a symbol of overall economic strength. Reagan’s huge deficits reversed that trend.

During the 1990s, the chief responsibility was to preside over a grand project of political-economic convergence and integration commonly referred to as globalization. Globalization served as a euphemism for soft, or informal, empire. Whatever means were employed, the management of empire assumed the existence of bountiful reserves of power – economic, political, but above all military.

The foreign policy implications of our present-day penchant for consumption and self-indulgence are almost entirely negative. Over the past six decades, efforts to satisfy spiraling consumer demand have given birth to a condition of profound dependency.

America’s status as a force for good in a world that pits good against evil has provided a rationale for bribing foreign officials, assassinating foreign leaders, overthrowing governments, and undertaking major military interventions. George. W. Bush did not invent this practice; he merely inherited and expanded it.