Skip to content

Sign up for a small monthly payment and enjoy ads-free browsing at 3QD


3 Quarks Daily

Make a one-time donation and enjoy ads-free browsing at 3QD


  • Home
  • About Us
  • Monday Magazine
  • Archives
  • Support 3QD
  • Log In

Alex Cooley

America and Empire: Thoughts on a Debate

Posted on Monday, Jun 11, 2007 12:01AMFriday, December 8, 2017 by Alex Cooley

by Alex Cooley In a recent issue of Foreign Affairs, Alex Motyl posed the question, “Do past empires hold lessons for U.S. foreign policy today?” In a review of two new books (an edited volume by Craig Calhoun and a study by Charles Maier), he concluded that “efforts [to show that they do] yield little…

Leave a comment

Receive 3QD Posts by Email

Please fill out the form below to get our email with all the posts from the previous 24 hours, which is sent out a bit after midnight (NY City time) each day. This is completely free of charge for everyone.
Name: 
Your email address:*
Please wait...
Please enter all required fields Click to hide
Correct invalid entries Click to hide

Coronavirus COVID-19 Info

PLEASE CLICK HERE.

Search 3QD



Follow 3QD on Social Media


What People Say About 3QD




"I look at your site every day. It's where the two cultures meet."

—Suketu Mehta, author of Pulitzer Prize finalist Maximum City, winner of the O. Henry Prize, and frequent contributor to various newspapers and magazines.




"3 Quarks Daily is terrific - many congratulations, and many thanks!"

—Alain de Botton, best-selling Swiss-British writer and Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.




"I have placed 3 Quarks Daily at the head of my list of web bookmarks."

—Richard Dawkins, previously Charles Simonyi Professor of the Public Understanding of Science at Oxford University.




"3QD is always interesting--you (and your other contributors) have a fine eye for good writing in both the arts and the sciences, which is a very rare thing indeed."

—Rochelle Gurstein, author of The Repeal of Reticence, and frequent contributor to The New Republic, Salmagundi, and American Scholar.




"It is a great honor to be mentioned in one of my two ONLY portals to the internet—and the world, since I do not read newspapers. My discipline, to avoid drowning in information, is not to cruise the web outside of these two points. I tried many sites; yours has CHARM."

—Nassim Nicholas Taleb, author of Fooled by Randomness and The Black Swan. [The other site NNT is referring to is the excellent Arts & Letters Daily.]




"3 Quarks is a daily must-read for intellectuals of all stripes. It is perhaps even smarter and better and more comprehensive than Arts & Letters Daily, the de facto gold standard of the smart set on the internet."

—Laura Claridge, former Professor of English at the U.S. Naval Academy, and author of Romantic Potency: The Paradox of Desire, Tamara de Lempicka: A Life of Deco and Decadence, and Norman Rockwell: A Life.




"3 Quarks Daily is first rate."

—Akeel Bilgrami, Sidney Morgenbesser Chair in Philosophy and Director of the South Asian Institute at Columbia University.




"Thanks for 3 Quarks Daily which has been very high on my reading list for several years now!"

—Huw Price, Bertrand Russell Professor of Philosophy and Fellow of Trinity College at the University of Cambridge. He is also co-founder, with Martin Rees and Jaan Tallinn, of a project to establish a Centre for the Study of Existential Risk.




"3 Quarks Daily is one of the most interesting aggregator blogs out there. It puts together stuff from art, science, philosophy, politics, literature. It’s a completely international, cosmopolitan place to get information. It’s become my entry point to reading on the Web."

—Mohsin Hamid, author of Moth Smoke, The Reluctant Fundamentalist, and How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia, in the New York Times.




"3 Quarks Daily is a warm and often amusing home for intellectuals and other wags."

—Annie Dillard, Pulitzer Prize-winning American writer.






Recent Comments on 3QD

  • Michael Sorokin So technology is going to solve a problem it created by doing more of the same? Okay. That sounds like a form of insanity to me, but whatever, we are...

    ‘It is the question of the century’: will tech solve the climate crisis – or make it worse? ·  Saturday, March 6, 2021

  • Charlie Huenemann What a marvelously lucid lecture!

    Ludwig Wittgenstein (A. C. Grayling) ·  Saturday, March 6, 2021

  • Android Pitanga Whether his guess is as accurate as any, that may be, but it's certainly more interesting and well developed than many.

    Philosopher Nick Bostrom’s “singleton hypothesis” predicts the future of human societies ·  Saturday, March 6, 2021

  • SloMo2020 How fitting that the essay which follows this is ......

    How Democrats are already letting Republicans win in 2022 ·  Friday, March 5, 2021

  • Julia I love this article.

    Accidental Adventures in Immunology ·  Friday, March 5, 2021

  • Michael Sorokin Predictions about the future are a mug's game. This guy's guess is as good as anyone's.

    Philosopher Nick Bostrom’s “singleton hypothesis” predicts the future of human societies ·  Friday, March 5, 2021

  • Bill Benzon The Biden Administration has appointed Tim Wu to the...

    Down the Rabbit Hole With Schubert and Hawley ·  Friday, March 5, 2021

  • Michael Liss It's just a little bit early to start writing political obituaries? Yes, culture wars are important, but voters might also be interested in actual...

    How Democrats are already letting Republicans win in 2022 ·  Friday, March 5, 2021

  • Ken_Pidcock So the thesis is that Republicans are able to exploit culture war issues because Democrats won't eliminate the filibuster. And this is because, if...

    How Democrats are already letting Republicans win in 2022 ·  Friday, March 5, 2021

  • PhilipGraham Well, THAT was a rewarding search. It turns out Rufus Harley recorded a bagpipes jazz version of “Eight Miles High,” one of my favorite songs by...

    Confessions of an Accordion Addict ·  Friday, March 5, 2021

  • PhilipGraham I know! There’s jazz violin (which I love), jazz harp (Alice Coltrane and more), jazz harmonica (which we now all know is but a small one quarter...

    Confessions of an Accordion Addict ·  Friday, March 5, 2021

  • Bill Benzon Thanks for this, Philip. Yes, I heard Lawrence Welk in my youth. Now that I think of it, it was schizy experience. The music itself seemed pretty...

    Confessions of an Accordion Addict ·  Thursday, March 4, 2021

  • Chris Horner Scientific truth is itself part of a set of procedures - as you describe - that provide a warrant or justification for claims (as pragmatists say)....

    Truth, Lies and Pragmatism ·  Thursday, March 4, 2021

  • Mike W Wouldn't this create massive levels of micro-plastic pollution?

    Could plastic roads make for a smoother ride? ·  Thursday, March 4, 2021

  • S Herb I agree with this demystification of 'free will' . I am still of the opinion that the traditional association of free will with religious decisions...

    Daniel C. Dennett: Herding Cats and Free Will Inflation ·  Wednesday, March 3, 2021

  • Michael Liss I hesitate to reply....

    Down the Rabbit Hole With Schubert and Hawley ·  Wednesday, March 3, 2021

  • Ofinfinitejest . You will never read a better or more insightful philosophical essay than this one. His concern about why we may well not want to create artificial...

    Daniel C. Dennett: Herding Cats and Free Will Inflation ·  Wednesday, March 3, 2021

  • Brooks Riley And a few hours after I posted that comment above, an ad for sheet music appeared on an internet article I was reading. . . (cue music for The...

    Down the Rabbit Hole With Schubert and Hawley ·  Wednesday, March 3, 2021

  • Brooks Riley Kitty Carlisle was the Merry Widow in a 1943 Broadway production. A marvelous English-language version. As a child, I used to lip-synch in front of...

    Confessions of an Accordion Addict ·  Wednesday, March 3, 2021

  • Michael Liss The WSJ is reporting this morning that Alphabet, parent company of Google, said it plans next year to stop using or investing in tracking technologies...

    Down the Rabbit Hole With Schubert and Hawley ·  Wednesday, March 3, 2021

  • Sue Plenty of things have tested positive to the PCR test. That's why it's unfit for purpose. Look, here's an epidemic it misdiagnosed earlier:...

    The search for animals harbouring coronavirus — and why it matters ·  Wednesday, March 3, 2021

  • Michael Liss Brooks, to your point, the algorithm now seems to think I want a concealed carry holster. Unless it it has a deeper insight into my needs than my...

    Down the Rabbit Hole With Schubert and Hawley ·  Wednesday, March 3, 2021

  • Michael Liss Kitty Carlisle was a panelist on To Tell The Truth. Also an occasional opera singer, Broadway and film actress and worked in government. I don't...

    Confessions of an Accordion Addict ·  Wednesday, March 3, 2021

  • Jochen Szangolies Very interesting argument. I like the 'tools' picture---I have occasionally thought in terms of interfaces: our attempts at conceptualizing the world...

    Pragmatism as philosophical tool design ·  Wednesday, March 3, 2021

  • PhilipGraham Thank you, Dave. A real compliment, as you have two of the best ears out there.

    Confessions of an Accordion Addict ·  Wednesday, March 3, 2021

  • Sally Benzon Excellent question. Hospital administrators and insurance companies have much more data to draw from in their decisions about hospital management,...

    Down the Rabbit Hole With Schubert and Hawley ·  Tuesday, March 2, 2021

  • Bill Benzon I’ve been listening to these clips again because, well, she’s just so damn good. One thing I noticed is that, not only does she employ a range...

    Sukiyaki and beyond: Hiromi Uehara, music, war and peace, Chick Corea, and others ·  Tuesday, March 2, 2021

  • Michael Liss Passing this one on to close friend in Baltimore. He won't agree with the politics, but he'll enjoy the local color.

    Epilog: Peace and Horror ·  Tuesday, March 2, 2021

  • David Jauss Another beaut, Philip!

    Confessions of an Accordion Addict ·  Tuesday, March 2, 2021

  • Jim Harrison George Soros' theory of market behavior amounts to an application of Girard's central concept of mimetic rivalry to high finance.

    Chatting With René Girard ·  Tuesday, March 2, 2021

3QD Design History and Credits

The original site was designed by S. Abbas Raza in 2004 but soon completely redesigned by Mikko Hyppönen and deployed by Henrik Rydberg. It was later upgraded extensively by Dan Balis in 2006. The next major revision was designed by S. Abbas Raza, building upon the earlier look, and coded by Dumky de Wilde in 2013. And this current version 5.0 has been designed and deployed by Dumky de Wilde in collaboration with S. Abbas Raza.

3 Quarks Daily

3 Quarks Daily started in 2004 with the idea of creating a curated retreat for everything intellectual on the web. No clickbait, no fake news, not just entertainment, but depth and breadth —something increasingly hard to find on the internet today. If you like what we do, please consider making a donation.