The Utopian Theory of Superpower: The Official Version

Promising “democracy, development, free markets, and free trade” to the world in the wake of 9/11, the U.S. administration unwittingly made the case that market fundamentalism contradicts democracy.

To Sheldon Wolin, The National Security Strategy of the United States of September 9, 2002 (hereafter NSS)¹ represented “the clearest formulation of the administration’s understanding of the mission of Superpower and of its totalizing reach.” There is no doubt that in the minds of its authors, this totalizing reach only expressed the positive outcome of a new era, where “democracy, development, free markets, and free trade” would be the conjuring forces toward a brighter and safer future. The shady notion of “free markets” appears as the core solution to all of humanity’s ailments.

A common misconception about utopian thinking is to consider that it is disconnected from the trivialities of power. Though some utopists will acknowledge that what they describe is fantasy and only meant to serve as a source of inspiration, others consider their creation a genuine project. To them, the univocity of their solution is the precise reason why no one could reasonably object to its realization. If there is a unified formula for collective happiness ever after, why dispense the world from its implementation?

Sheldon Wolin explains: “There have been three recurrent elements or prerequisites in many visions of utopia. One is that the founders of utopia possess some form of knowledge, some unquestionable truth, concerning what the right order of society should be, what should be the proper arrangement of its major institutions. The second element is that utopians must imagine it possible to possess the powers capable of establishing and realizing the utopian order. The third element is the opportunity of bringing utopia into existence and the skill in seizing and exploiting that moment. The NSS document embodies the first element, the blueprint, and suggests the second, the powers that seem to put utopia within reach. The third element, opportunity, was concocted in the preemptive war against Iraq.”

Regarding what the right order of society should be, the NSS states that “The great struggles of the twentieth century between liberty and totalitarianism ended with a decisive victory for the forces of freedom—and a single sustainable model for national success: freedom, democracy, and free enterprise.”² Confident in this good omen from history, the United States “will actively work to bring the hope of democracy, development, free markets, and free trade to every corner of the world.”³ And as “Poverty, weak institutions, and corruption can make weak states vulnerable to terrorist networks and drug cartels within their borders,”⁴, the solution is in the fact that “Free trade and free markets have proven their ability to lift whole societies out of poverty”⁵ In other words, instead of specifying how to foster democracy from within, the NSS makes “free trade” the single virtue of sound politics.

As Sheldon Wolin points out, however, in the real world “Free trade and free markets in the hands of the already powerful are not symmetrical with free trade and markets in the hands of ‘weak’ societies. Instead, the effect upon the poor nations of opting for them invariably turns simple weakness into dependence on those nations whose economies have made them dominant powers and who, accordingly, have the right to declare a state weak and call its performance to account.” Accordingly, when the NSS makes the overly general statement that “market economies, not command-and-control economies with the heavy hand of government, are the best way to promote prosperity and reduce poverty,”⁶ it is under the logical assumption that this cannot happen in a vacuum: “For freedom to thrive, accountability must be expected and required.”⁷

Sheldon Wolin logically concludes that in this skewed perspective “freedom is granted conditionally and performance is accountable to the power that makes freedom possible. What began as the challenge posed by terrorism becomes conflated into ‘a great mission’ that comprehends virtually all of the world’s ills and, in the process, inflates national power into global power.” The accountability the NSS refers to is not that of political representatives toward their constituents but of all countries toward the United States—the “free trade” grand scheduler.

“Free trade” is the NSS utopia that sees in foreign terrorism its opportunity to bind together market fundamentalism and political power into a form of Superpower. As the author explains, “Light-handed government in regard to economic policy—a conception that might be termed ‘antipolitical economy’—and heavy-handed state power to fight terrorism: the two represent a unique power combination. In the economies of contemporary capitalist societies relationships reek of unequal power, but dominant powers differ from those of the government or state.” Unchallenged military power coincides with increased economic and domestic powers. Not the power of the government—or the people for that matter. The unbound power of corporations. A superpower under the aegis of the United States.

1. The document is accessible online at: https://nssarchive.us/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/2002.pdf
2. NSS, Introduction, p.1.
3. Ibid., p.2.
4. Ibid., p. 3.
5. Ibid.
6. Ibid, VI, p. 17.
7. Ibid., p. 4.