Editing Hegemony or Survival (section)

===U.S. Imperial Grand Strategy===
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 | quote     = Maintaining a hold on political power and enhancing US control of the world's primary energy sources are major steps toward the twin goals that have been declared with considerable clarity: to institutionalize a radical restructuring of domestic society that will roll back the progressive reforms of a century, and to establish an imperial grand strategy of permanent world domination.
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Chomsky's primary argument in ''Hegemony or Survival'' is that the United States government has pursued an "Imperial Grand Strategy" in order to maintain its status as the world's foremost superpower since at least the end of the Second World War. Adopting the term "Imperial Grand Strategy" from international affairs specialist [[John Ikenberry]] of [[Princeton University]], he quotes Ikenberry on the nature of this doctrine and the manner in which it considers the "rule of force" to be more important than the "rule of law", thereby ignoring international law.{{sfn|Chomsky|2003|p=11}}
Quoting liberal statesman [[Dean Acheson]], Chomsky asserts that the purpose of this strategy is to prevent any challenge to the "power, position, and prestige of the United States".{{sfn|Chomsky|2003|p=14}}

Noting that economic decision making in the United States is highly centralized among a select socio-economic elite who control [[big business]], he argues that this elite play a dominant role in this Imperial Grand Strategy because they consistently maintain a strong influence over successive U.S. governments. As a result, he argues that U.S. foreign policy has focused on gaining and maintaining unrestricted access to markets, energy supplies, and strategic resources across the world.{{sfn|Chomsky|2003|pp=15—16}} Chomsky goes on to categorize the specific purposes of the doctrine as:

:containing other centers of global power within the "overall framework of order" managed by the United States; maintaining control of the world's energy supplies; barring unacceptable forms of independent nationalism; and overcoming "crisis of democracy" within domestic enemy territory.{{sfn|Chomsky|2003|p=14}}

Chomsky argues that as a part of this strategy, the U.S. has regularly engaged in "[[preventative war]]", which he highlights is illegal under international law and could be categorised as a [[war crime]]. Preventative war refers to conflict waged to prevent a nation ever reaching the stage where it could become a potential threat, and according to Chomsky, under the regimes of Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and his son George W. Bush it has actively involved attacking "an imagined or invented threat" such as Grenada and Iraq. He differentiates this "preventative war" from "[[preemptive war]]", which he argues can be justifiable under international law in cases of self-defence.{{sfn|Chomsky|2003|p=12}}
Examining examples of preventative war waged by the United States, he notes that all of the nations that have been attacked have shared the same three characteristics: 1) they are "virtually defenseless", 2) they are "important enough to be worth the trouble" and 3) there has been a way to portray them as "the ultimate evil and an imminent threat to our survival."{{sfn|Chomsky|2003|p=17}}