A book-length treatment by journalist Cullen Murphy (2007) pulls together a set of parallels and focuses on the function of the imperial capital. Chalmers Johnson (2004: 15-16) equates America today with the end of Rome’s Republic and its transition to the undemocratic Imperium Romanum, while Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri (2000: 164-167) draw a parallel between the rhetoric of a Pax Romana and a Pax Americana, both of which are based on permanent war.

How? By unapologetic and implacable demonstrations of will.” For other commentators, Rome is a negative prototype. Accordingly, America is in a position to reshape norms, alter expectations and create new realities. Rome also underwent a transformation from republic to an imperial golden age, and reference is made to opinion leaders such as Cato, who said of Rome’s enemies: “Let them hate us as long as they fear us.” This sentiment is echoed by Charles Krauthammer (2001) who asserts that America “is the dominant power in the world, more than any since Rome. empire have become a mainstay of historians and political commentators alike (e.g. After the end of the cold war, and especially since 9/11, the notion of an “American empire” and the comparison with Rome as the sole precursor of the U.S. With this sentence, Joseph Nye opens his book The Paradox of American Power (2002: 1). “Not since Rome has one nation loomed so large above the others”. This paper presents an alternative to these equations by comparing the American and the Assyrian empire, based on my contention that they have structural similarities not shared by Rome.

Over the last decade many historians and political analysts have sought to highlight similarities between the American and Roman Empires. Imperialist Networks: Ancient Assyria and the United States Bernbeck: Imperialist Networks: Ancient Assyria and the United States

Imperialism 2 paul the tall