Britain's imperial history offers useful lessons

The study of Britain's colonial and imperial history is never a waste of time because its impacts are still being felt in, among other areas on earth, the Middle East that is undergoing a mass-based upheaval and a dynamic of intensification of inter-state competition and rivalry. In the USA, some historians and scholars of international relations have also been discoursing on the many lessons of "imperial over'-'stretch". Of course, whether the United States is "'imperial'" is open to debate. There is a body of political opinion that conceptualises the worldwide involvements and committments of the country as 'global' leadership'. But, like it or hate it, many people in, for example, 'Afghanistan and Pakistan, are difficult to be persuaded or convinced by the argument.