America the Virtuous

Urged on by politicians and intellectuals, the president of the United States has committed America to a quest for empire. In his view, American values and principles are universal, and should guide a remaking of the world. The new worldview asserts a right to strike preemptively and unilaterally against any potential threat. Implicit is a call for sufficient military might to discourage any nation from challenging the will of the United States. Claes Ryn sees this drive for a virtuous empire as the culmination of an ideological movement that has galvanized the minds and imaginations of many American intellectuals in the last several decades.

Ryn describes the drive for empire as part of a larger ideological whole, one both expressing and aggravating a crisis of democracy. This ideology is about far more than America’s role in the world; it encompasses an elaborate view of human nature and society. The ideology sets forth its own notion of virtue. It sees in America not a historically evolved and culturally distinctive society, but a regime based on universal principles that belong to all mankind. And it sees this America as uniquely equipped to transform the world. Today numerous prominent commentators, such as William Bennett, Charles Krauthammer, William Kristol, Michael Novak, and Norman Podhoretz argue passionately for having the United States bring “democracy,” “freedom,” and “capitalism” to the rest of the world.

America the Virtuous argues that America is shedding an older sense of the need for restraints on power, as checks provided by the U.S. Constitution are greatly weakened. Influential policymakers and intellectuals want American leaders to have virtually unrestricted power in the world. America the Virtuous explains the ideological underpinnings of this quest for empire and subjects it to in-depth analysis and criticism.

Claes G. Ryn is professor of politics at the Catholic University of America. He has also taught at the University of Virginia, Georgetown University, and Uppsala University in Sweden. He is chairman of the National Humanities Institute and editor of the journal Humanitas. His many books include Unity Through Diversity, Will, Imagination, and Reason (published by Transaction), and Democracy and the Ethical Life.