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An interview with Niall Ferguson, author of Empire: The Rise and Demise of the British World Order and Its Lessons for Global Power. Quotable:

by the time you get into the 19th and early 20th centuries, the British Empire was something unique. It was the world's first liberal empire, trying to export not only free trade and free markets, but also with institutions that many Americans today would regard as very good things, the rule of law being one and non-corrupt administration being another. And that's, of course, what many economists would say the poorer countries of the world most badly need.

So when the United States intervened in a country like Afghanistan, or, most recently Iraq, and talks in terms of creating a market economy and above all democracy there, in many ways it's acting quite like the Victorian British empire did without, I think, admitting it to itself. I know Americans have a kind of allergy to the word "empire." I'm constantly amazed at the legacy of the War of Independence even today.

TCS: As a former colony, I guess it's to be expected to some degree.

FERGUSON: Absolutely, and I think it's understandable, but, you know, in a way, it's time to realize that you're no longer the former rebel colony, you are now the world empire and this brings with it responsibilities and I think admitting the extent of America's imperial power might go a long way to making it more of a force for good than it perhaps has been in the past.

TCS: Are we talking about whether an empire is a good thing or are we talking about whether the English speaking empire was, on balance, a good thing?

FERGUSON: I think the latter. One of the key points I try to make in the book is that compared with the available alternatives in the 19th and the first half of the 20th century, the British empire was really clearly preferable. Whether you think in terms of the other 19th century empires from the Belgian empire to the Russian empire, or by the time you get to the 1930's to the kind of empires that Hitler and Hirohito wanted to create in the world. By comparison with those alternatives, people who were living under British rule in, say, India or in sub-Saharan Africa were pretty well off.