Shanks

How big is it and how good is it compared to past empires?

Labienus

Well it is not the biggest in term of territory but I think that its sphere of influence is unmatched all through history. Obviously, the American empire was stronger in the mid 1990s than today IMO.

Salah

Well...any map or almanac (the Wikipedia for that matter) might be able to help you figure out how big it is...

As for how good it is...well that'll depend on who you ask, eh?

Jake10

Do you mean economically? Militarily? Influentially? Socially?...

Charlie Bravo

George Friedman asserts that the US is currently a nascent empire that will virtually own the 21st Century in his book "The Next 100 Years". I found his assertions fascinating, particularly the US domination of Earth orbit that he predicts.

http://www.stratfor.com/next100years

Dr Realism

The US does not have an empire in the conventional sense. It's a country that has a lot of alliances and military personel stationed in other countries at the invitation of those governments. Those governments, as France did in 1966 and Iraq did recently, can tell the US to withdraw its personel at any time. They are also free to end their alliances with the US as they see fit. France is once again the example, withdrawing from its alliance in 1966.
The US's influence seems to go up and down during different periods.
The US has no territories or colonies to lose or gain. I guess that's the biggest difference.

Interestingly, China, Iran, Russia, and North Korea are reigniting America's power in the world. Russia: The US now has bases in Romania and Bulgaria and it has sold F-16s to Poland.
Iran: as we see in the wikileaks, the governments of the region are clamouring for the US to stand up to Iran and take them out.
North Korea: any thought of the South Korean government asking the US to leave South Korea is gone.
China: Japan is no longer thinking about telling the US to leave. A year ago it seemed like Japan might be thinking about a more balanced relationship between China and the US. The debate about whether to lean toward China or lean toward the US is done. Japan has even announced that it is realigning its military to counter China. South Koreans hate the Chinese. Their attitude towards China in the last decade has dropped. South East Asia doesn't seem so warm to China, particularly since they claimed the whole South China Sea. So we see even Vietnam militarily working with the US. India is being surrounded by China's string of Pearls naval bases, so that's a development that is up in the air.
Africa Command was established in 2008.
So in a time when every newspaper is trying to declare an end of the US Empire, it seems to be going through a strengthening phase.

ralfy

Forty years of trade deficits, more than $57 trillion in total debt, banks exposed to around $370 trillion in derivatives, many states close to bankruptcy due to high debt and propped up only through more debt, around 70 pct of economic "growth" based on consumer spending and rigged credit ratings, probably up to 40 pct of military operations funded through foreign loans and maybe up to a quarter of assets now controlled by foreigners.

Linschoten

It is misleading in my view to compare the American 'empire' to past territorial empires, it is a different kind of beast. My impression is that, in so far as it has been based on brute power, it has passed it highest point.

tjadams

Good postings above, and I will add that empires used to be continually measured in straight, unbroken, continual lines. The US, as all great European powers did at one time, had/has peppered interest in many places. Empires can now be economic, not so much land holdings.

Charlie Bravo

They can also be cultural, which is why one can cut through the Amazonian rain forest and stumble across an indigenous kid wearing a Dallas Cowboys t-shirt.