US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter is another neoconservative official who has settled himself in the administration of President Barack Obama to expand American hegemony, an investigative journalist in Florida says.
“His comment about the US Navy bringing stability to Southeast Asian waters is reminiscent of [former] President Theodore Roosevelt and his gunboat diplomacy of speak softly but carry a big stick,” said Wayne Madsen, who is also an author and columnist specializing in intelligence and international affairs.
Gunboat diplomacy is considered a form of hegemony, which the United States adopted as it became a military power in the first decade of the 20th century.
Gunboat diplomacy in the post-Cold War world is still largely based on naval forces, owing to the US Navy's overwhelming sea power.
“Roosevelt made that comment back when there was a battle between the imperialist powers of the world for territory and this is 2015 and there’s no place in the world today for this antiquated militarism of Mr. Carter,” Madsen said during a phone interview with Press TV on Friday.
The bellicose remarks by Carter, who is known to have ties to neocons, have in fact brought China and Taiwan closer together, despite Washington’s goal to create conflict between China and its neighbors in the Asia-Pacific region, Madsen said.
After an extensive review of neoconservative literature and theory by John McGowan, a professor of humanities at the University of North Carolina, he concluded that neoconservatives are attempting to build an American Empire, seen as successor to the British Empire.
However, since imperialism is mostly considered unacceptable by the US media, neoconservatives do not articulate their ideas and goals in a direct manner in public discourse, McGowan states.