Sleepwalking Into a New Imperial Age

By Ricardo Hausmann – Project Syndicate

In 1651, Thomas Hobbes – deeply affected by the violence of the English Civil War – called for a Leviathan: a powerful state capable of imposing order and preventing chaos. Without strong government, he warned, life would be “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.” But as history has shown, creating such a Leviathan is more difficult than simply wishing one into existence.

This was not immediately evident during the great decolonization wave of the twentieth century. Since World War II, more than 130 new countries have gained independence – around 80 across Africa and Asia and 20 in the Caribbean and Pacific Islands. The remainder were formed following the dissolution of empires and multinational states like the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia.

The global decolonization wave was fueled not only by people’s desire for self-determination but also by active support from the United States, which saw independence movements as a way to weaken both European imperialism and Soviet expansionism. In his 1949 Point Four Program, US President Harry Truman laid out his postwar blueprint: support the United Nations in safeguarding territorial integrity, rebuild Europe through the Marshall Plan, promote decolonization, and provide technical assistance to the world’s poorest regions, including nascent states. The goal was to replace colonial Leviathans with homegrown ones, supported by a framework of international cooperation.