ABSTRACT
This chapter presents an overview of the American Liberalism and the Imperial Temptation. It offers an ideal-typical account of the structure of empires that allows the people to spot the existence of imperial relations in international and domestic politics. Liberalism produces an imperial temptation: it holds that the spread of liberal democracy renders the world more peaceful, more cooperative and better able to improve human welfare. These beliefs imply that, in one way or another, liberal governments ought to promote their values and generally expand the sum total of global political freedom. In the United States, this viewpoint has led to a variety of strategies. Regardless of the truth of the neo-Wilsonian argument, it does call attention to an important aspect of the evolving post-1945 liberal order, which now includes the United Nations, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade process, the World Trade Organization and NATO.
