Corporate Interests and U.S. Foreign Policy

Abstract

G. William Domhoff's class-dominance approach is noteworthy for capturing long-term trends that have been well-supported by scholars in political science and sociology. This chapter argues that Domhoff's class-dominance theory needs to be supplemented by attention to the way that sectoral divisions among US business interests leads to business conflict over US policy. This includes consideration of the policy preferences of the military-industrial complex. It examines the connections among military corporations, think tanks and key decision-makers in the Bush Administration after the attacks of 9/11. It also examines the ways in which 9/11 further centralized executive branch power and, in particular, expanded the power of the Defense Department in the aftermath of the attacks. The theories of US empire that emphasize corporate power have emerged from a wide range of critical scholarship. The relationship between the most powerful corporate policy-planning organizations and long-term grand strategic thinking has been well established in the scholarly literature.