ABSTRACT

Hopkins’s American Empire is quite illuminating in his comparative analysis and detailed account of the dependent territories in the Caribbean and the Pacific. He convincingly demonstrates that the American empire was not exceptional, though distinct, and that it shared more commonalities than differences with other Western colonial powers. This essay attempts to shed light on some other aspects that Hopkins’s analysis of the ‘insular empire’ did not fully cover in his work. It employs the term ‘informal empire’ rather than hegemony to grasp the distinct characteristics of American empire-building and highlights the dialectical process of interaction between America’s anti-colonial tradition, on the one hand, and the imperial impulses, on the other. In contrast with Hopkins’s portrayal of the United States as ‘an aspiring hegemon,’ it argues that the interwar years were a transitional stage of U.S. empire-building that subsequently transformed itself into a fully-fledged informal empire during the Cold War years. The article shows that the Cold War order was hierarchical and coercive, and similar to the old imperial order embodied by the European colonial powers. It shares Hopkins’s view that the first signs of the decline of U.S. power appeared in the 1970s but disagrees about the rate the trend developed. It contends that the decline was rather gradual and winding, though cumulative, and that the United States managed to remain an informal empire for some time after the ending of the Cold War.

摘要

霍普金斯的美利坚帝国他对加勒比和太平洋附属领土的比较分析和详细说明非常有启发性。他令人信服地证明，美利坚帝国并不例外，尽管与众不同，而且它与其他西方殖民大国的共同点多于差异。这篇文章试图阐明霍普金斯对“岛屿帝国”的分析在他的作品中没有完全涵盖的其他一些方面。它使用“非正式帝国”而非霸权一词来把握美国帝国建设的鲜明特征，突出了美国反殖民传统与帝国冲动相互作用的辩证过程。与霍普金斯将美国描绘成“一个有抱负的霸主”相反，’它认为，两次世界大战之间的年代是美国帝国建设的一个过渡阶段，随后在冷战年代将自己转变为一个成熟的非正式帝国。文章表明，冷战秩序具有等级性和强制性，类似于欧洲殖民列强所体现的旧帝国秩序。它同意霍普金斯的观点，即美国实力下降的最初迹象出现在 1970 年代，但不同意这种趋势的发展速度。它争辩说，这种衰落是渐进和曲折的，尽管是累积的，而且美国在冷战结束后的一段时间内设法保持了一个非正式的帝国。文章表明，冷战秩序具有等级性和强制性，类似于欧洲殖民列强所体现的旧帝国秩序。它同意霍普金斯的观点，即美国实力下降的最初迹象出现在 1970 年代，但不同意这种趋势的发展速度。它争辩说，这种衰落是渐进和曲折的，尽管是累积的，而且在冷战结束后的一段时间内，美国设法保持了一个非正式的帝国。文章表明，冷战秩序具有等级性和强制性，类似于欧洲殖民列强所体现的旧帝国秩序。它同意霍普金斯的观点，即美国实力下降的最初迹象出现在 1970 年代，但不同意这种趋势的发展速度。它争辩说，这种衰落是渐进和曲折的，尽管是累积的，而且在冷战结束后的一段时间内，美国设法保持了一个非正式的帝国。