America’s detractors have called it “imperialist” for some time. Recently, the American government has embraced this label, invading several countries. While it is doubtful America is really trying to build a classical empire, I think it could actually do so in a way that would avoid some of the problems usually experienced in empire building and actually help the people of the world a little in the process.
America should announce that any government that actively pursues or obviously condones genocide has forfeit its right to rule and will be eliminated, with the nation it presently governs invaded and made part of the American Empire.
Since it appears that defeating foreign armies (particularly from the types of countries likely to practice genocide) is significantly less of a challenge for America compared to “winning the peace”, this strategy should provide a fairly large group of natives (though certainly a minority) who would back their new American overlords, namely the people previously being slaughtered by their own government.
After taking over a few of these countries, the likely furor of neighboring countries make it almost certain that Imperial America would be faced with the necessity of (or at least the pretext for) conquering Lybia. I figure that about half of Africa would be part of the Empire by the end of the decade. And not just the crummy bits either, but some serious mineral wealth. You might think ruling such a place would be a disaster waiting to happen. Of course it would be, but America couldn’t do much worse ruling this part of the world than its done for itself. At the very least, a lot fewer women would be raped and people getting their hands cut off would be the occasional accident instead of an hourly event.
It would also supply America with what it appears to need most: a labor pool that doesn’t mind being paid very little to make Nikes. For many in Africa, making pennies a day beats lining up to get your limbs severed, hands down (as it were).
Another thing going for this policy is that it embodies America’s second founding principle: hypocrisy (freedom being the first founding principle), given that the “let’s get our citizens to destroy their food supply” strategy employed against Native Americans would fit the “obviously condones genocide” requirement.