Empires of trust

Thomas Madden offers a contrarian analysis of American and Roman empire in his recent book, Empires of Trust . Most empires in history, he says, “have sought to build their power in whatever way they can, making war on their neighbors when it seems advantageous and continuing to do so until stopped. They are trusted only to use power for their own benefit and to treat those they conquer as, well, conquered.”

Many believe that the Romans were the same. Not Madden.

Using the Roman Senate’s response to the third-century conquest of the Italian city of Locri by Scipio as an example, he argues that the Romans built an empire of trust not an empire of conquest. The Locrians, after all, brought a protest to the Senate against Scipio, and even Scipio’s allies in the Senate agreed that the Romans owed the Locrians restitution: “the people of Locri were so certain that the Romans would use their power responsibly, prudently, and even mercifully, that when their expectations were not met, they sent a delegation to Rome to chastise the Romans and issue demands. In other words, they trusted the Romans to act responsibly, and even when that trust was violated, they trusted the Romans to make it right. And that, of course, is what the Romans did.”

Madden appeals to the American response to the abuses at Abu Ghraib to indicate that the American empire is similar to the Roman in this respect. In part, his point is comparative: “If, for example, Soviet forces under Stalin, or German forces under Hitler, or Japanese forces under Tojo, or French forces under Napoleon, had rounded up insurrections the expectation would be that they would be tortured for information and/or executed.” The fact that the inmates at Abu Ghraib were fighting to restore Saddam would have been reason enough to torture.

Americans reacted very differently when the pictures were published, and, Madden insists, “everyone around the world knew” that America would not brush off the revelations: “Arab leaders so trusted the United States to use power responsibly that on an occasion when that trust was violated, they also trusted the Americans would make it right.” Whether it was “made right” is an open question, but no one in the US Senate defended the abuse: Resolution 356 passes 92-0.

Madden is no Pollyanna. He knows all nations can be brutal. But he also makes a persuasive case for distinguishing empires from empires.