A very interesting review. The review too, I think, stops short at determining the cause(s) of imperialism. He does not identify the cause of power. “Power is the axis upon which the imperial machine turns and under which its various tentacles are subsumed. It is the means by which imperialists consolidate their near total control and domination of the lives of the imperialized. Kohli does discuss power in his analysis of imperialism, indeed, pointing out that, ‘Britain used its power superiority to build both a formal and informal empire’ (6); and ‘Force was used periodically to establish and maintain these economic interactions…’ (142). Also, ‘The use of coercion is especially significant for assessing a relationship as imperial’ (392). But so strong is the emphasis on motives (economic interest) that the significance of the concept of power or coercion is lost within the historical narrative. Indeed, in the case of the US, Kohli talks about ‘surplus power.’ We shall return to this ...
“The West won the world not by the superiority of its ideas or values or religion (to which few members of other civilizations were converted) but rather by its superiority in applying organized violence. Westerners often forget this fact; non-Westerners never do.” —Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilisation and the Remaking of the World Order, 1996, p. 51