Postwar US empire was legitimated through modernization theory and Orientalism

Evidence

In line with these scholars I have argued that in the postwar era, Orientalism and modernization theory were the means through which the United States realized its imperial ambitions during the Cold War. The racial Muslim of the twenty-first century, discussed in Chapter 6, was born in this Cold War context. Bernard Lewis played a key role in adapting Orientalism to the United States. In an essay titled “The Roots of Muslim Rage” published in 1990, he explained anti-imperialist resistance by Muslims through the framework of the “clash of civilizations” in which political conflicts were displaced onto the realm of culture and religion. — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 256

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: American exceptionalism repackaged empire because it could not inherit old imperial language; US postwar imperialism was framed as benevolent supremacy via free-market capitalism — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 245; Modernization theory framed imperial intervention as benevolent external uplift — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 247 (+9 more)

Broader Connections

• US post-war hegemony repurposed Orientalism and modernization theory to justify empire. #corroborates (1.00) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 28
• Modernization theory justified empire by framing other societies as needing outside intervention #expands (0.92)
• American empire inherited and reformulated European Orientalism after World War II #expands (0.90) — Edward W. Said, Orientalism, 724
• Modernization theory masked empire despite claiming objective social science #expands (0.85)
• US postwar security state disguised imperial expansion as defensive exceptionalism #expands (0.75) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 732