Book Talk | Imperial Realism
What does it feel like to live in a moment in which it is easier to imagine the end of the world than it is to imagine the end of the US Empire? In Imperialist Realism, historian and QI non-resident fellow Daniel Bessner explores how Americans have come to accept their global empire not because they believe in its righteousness but because they believe no alternative to U.S. hegemony is possible.
Annelle Sheline, research fellow in the Middle East program at the Quincy Institute, will host Bessner to discuss how cultural artifacts and public figures, from “Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War” to Barack Obama, offer insights into modern empire and liberalism, and whether we can transcend the paradigm of imperialist realism.
The conversation will take place on Wednesday, September 9th from 12:00 – 1:00 PM ET.
Panelists
Daniel Bessner
Daniel Bessner is a non-resident fellow at the Quincy Institute and the Anne H.H. and Kenneth B. Pyle Associate Professor in American Foreign Policy in the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies at the University of Washington. He is the author of “Democracy in Exile: Hans Speier and the Rise of the Defense Intellectual” (Cornell, 2018) and co-editor, with Nicolas Guilhot, of “The Decisionist Imagination: Sovereignty, Social Science, and Democracy in the Twentieth Century” (Berghahn, 2019). His writing has appeared in numerous academic journals as well as The New York Times, The Washington Post, Foreign Affairs, and other publications.
Annelle Sheline
Annelle Sheline, Ph.D., is a research fellow in the Middle East program. She previously served as a Foreign Affairs Officer at the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor’s Office of Near Eastern Affairs (DRL/NEA), before resigning in March 2024 in protest over the Biden administration’s unconditional support for Israeli military operations in Gaza. Her book “Weaponizing Tolerance: Arab Monarchies and American Support for Moderate Islam” will be published by Cambridge University Press in 2027. She is a senior non-resident fellow at the Arab Center of Washington DC, a non-resident fellow at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy, and an adjunct faculty member at Georgetown University. She holds a Ph.D. in political science from George Washington University.