RE-ENTERING THE COSMOPOLITAN PHASE OF IMPERIUM: REMARKS ON OBAMA’S PRESIDENCY AND DISCUSSIONS OF AMERICAN EMPIRE

Abstract

A worldwide consensus would suggest that the legacy of the first and second Bush administrations was imperial in a way unprecedented in US history. The new presidency of Barack Obama, now, seems to promise to undo this legacy of empire, which had manifestly resulted in the lowest popularity ratings for an American president in history. Obama’s electoralcampaign discourse and first presidential appearances on the world stage have, in fact, reinforced his image as “America’s first cosmopolitan president.” This positive emphasis on cosmopolitanism should be highlighted as one of the rare moments in US history given the rather unenthusiastic reception of the term in American political culture, which highly contests its glorification by European political theorists. This paper strives to reassess the discussions of American Empire in the light of the cosmopolitan touch on the horizon, from the hands of Barack Obama. In doing that it aims to provide an overview of the critical literature on the imperial attributes of the US, put forward a generic definition of empire in the light of imperial adaptation studies as well as to measure the possible impact of a cosmopolitan discourse on ending the regional and global apprehensions of an imperial US

Keywords

• American Cosmopolitanism, American Empire, Obama Presidency, Meliorism, Neo-Wilsonianism, Universalism.