US post-war hegemony repurposed Orientalism and modernization theory to justify empire.

Evidence

In the nineteenth century, various European nations set up centers for the study of the Orient from which there emerged a huge body of Orientalist scholarship integrally tied to imperialism and colonization. In this chapter, and throughout the book generally, I focus mainly on the Middle East and North Africa, because it was these regions, due to their proximity to Europe, that largely informed the development of an elite Western vocabulary about “Islam.” After World War II, the United States took over from France and England, both literally and metaphorically. It began to exercise its hegemony in the region through the borrowed language of Orientalism, but also through the vocabulary of capitalist modernization, which was better suited to the new form of imperialism initiated by the United States. — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 28

Categorization

• XREF: The US borrowing the language of Orientalism and capitalist modernization traces the imperial continuity from European colonial powers the reader studies. — connects to: US overseas bases extend an ancient imperial strategy of encircling domination; Imperial dispositions may be the template for modern political self-deception — Ann Laura Stoler, Along the Archival Grain_ Epistemic…, 1412; Justifying everywhere war requires reviving the archaic category of common enemies of humanity — Grégoire Chamayou, A Theory of the Drone, 830 (+40 more)

Broader Connections

• Orientalist Muslim dehumanization legitimizes colonial and imperial adventures #corroborates (0.65) — Sophia Rose Arjana, Muslims in the Western Imagination, 44
• Clash-of-civilizations rhetoric ideologically legitimized both foreign wars and domestic attacks #corroborates (0.60) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 421
• American postwar empire legitimized itself through ‘benevolent supremacy’ rather than old colonialism. #expands (0.60) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 144
• Human rights and democracy discourse replaced older imperial justifications for war #complicates (0.50) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 403
• Hegemony explains class rule as cultural and political sway, not just economic interest #complicates (0.45)
• US support for decolonization served its own imperial aims #contradicts (0.40) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 207
• Marxian theory is structurally unable to grasp modern imperialism #complicates (0.30)