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319 de facto empire with a unified military command structure) or threatening and evil like the Empire of “Star Wars.” The difference in terminology is significant. When scriptwriters want to describe an empire with bad inten- tions and brutal methods, they call it by its real name. When those writers want to describe a good empire that behaves toward its members in restrained, cooperative ways, they gave it a less frightening name like Federation—or Galactic Club. Harrison described the Galactic Club as a supranational system, whose members would accept decisions from an echelon that is higher than that of any individual member state. He speculated that the superior entity would exert control over a limited number of areas; for example, it might withhold information from civilizations that choose not to cooperate. He then admitted a possibility that changes the game: If some members of the Club have overcome the difficulties of interstellar travel, military sanctions could be available.'*” To apply military sanctions, the Galactic Club—or at least one of its members—would need a superior ability to inflict violence on those who disturb the system. The Earthly analog is not the United Nations, as Harrison suggested, but a multinational alliance like NATO, a concert of powers like that which dominated European politics for much of the nine- teenth century, or a multinational empire. The enforcer might be a single “hyperpower” like the present United States. Harrison argued that the past century of human history has seen a rapid decline—and perhaps the elimination—of empires. His argument may be correct when applied to the European empires created from the sixteenth to nineteenth centuries, or the Soviet empire that collapsed in 1991. However, empires of one type or another have been a recurrent phenome- non in human history. Harrison acknowledged that the recent decline of empires might be a random fluctuation and that de facto empires may continue to exist.'** Our thinking is heavily influenced by the history of Western imperial- ism. Before 1500, as Huntington saw it, civilizations on Earth were sepa- rated by time and space. During the 400 following years, intercivilizational relations consisted of the subordination of other societies to the West. The immediate source of Western expansion was technological: the invention of the means of ocean navigation for reaching distant peoples and the development of the military capabilities for conquering them. The West won the world not by the superiority of its ideas or values or religion, but by its superiority in applying organized violence.'” The history of empires goes back much further; they have been a way of life for most of the peoples of the world, as either conqueror or conquered. For most of human history, the most typical form of government has been an empire.'”° Our own historical experience repeatedly shows an impetus for the outward expansion of powerful societies. Wherever we have civili- zation, we have imperialism. Interstellar Empires Do Not Exist