“列宁主义者”说断言，美国的帝国主义政策产自美国商业精华区之共同利益，即必须确保并利用资本与货品市场。自马克斯主义者看来，商业行为之本质在于控制政府，国际军备竞赛不过是国际性经济战之一环，而两者皆受资本主义固有之扩张天性所驱使。美国海军退役将领史曼德雷·巴特勒（Smedley Butler）曾说他的工作是充当“大企业的打手”（"muscle man for big business"）时，即彰显此种观点。此说对帝国主义的典型解决方案为商业革命。此说于第一次世界大战期间由布尔什维克、列宁，与布哈林，基于早期的马克斯主义者、社会主义者、与无政府主义者的论点立说。阿里、福斯特、连司、与金殷诸人，连同史密斯本人，皆持此种看法，但各有不同形式。
布特其实肯用“帝国主义”形容美国的政策，不只用于20世纪早期，而是“至少始自1803年”。但这主要不过是用词不同，布特仍辩称美国对外政策向来基于善意。[37]布特并非个案，美国的保守主义专栏作家查尔斯·克鲁瑟默写道：“人们现正自‘帝国’中一词中出柜。”（"People are now coming out of the closet on the word 'empire."）不少新保守主义者接受帝国一词，如英国史家保罗·强森，以及作家汀许·狄守哲和马克·史推恩。有些自由主义鹰派人士亦持相同态度，如齐毕纽·布里辛斯基和麦可·伊格纳泰夫等政治人物。[38]
(原文："proceeding along a path to which no limit can be perceived.")Kellner, Douglas. American Exceptionalism. 2003-04-25 [2006-02-20]. （原始内容存档于2006-02-17）.
(原文："in Britain, empire was justified as a benevolent “white man’s burden.” And in the United States, empire does not even exist; “we” are merely protecting the causes of freedom, democracy, and justice worldwide.")Magdoff, Harry; John Bellamy Foster. After the Attack...The War on Terrorism. 当月评论. November 2001, 53 (6): 7 [2007-03-29]. （原始内容存档于2011-03-17）.
(原文："the United States, from the time it gained its own independence, has used every available means—political, economic, and military—to help and nurture other nations.")Lens, Sidney. The Forging of the American Empire. Haymarket Books and Pluto Press. 2003. ISBN 978-0-7453-2100-4. Book jacket.
(原文："far from what the Founding Fathers had intended the young Republic to become.")Buchanan, Patrick. A Republic, Not and Empire. Regnery Publishing. 1999. ISBN 978-0-89526-272-1. p. 165.
(原文："fix the premises of discourse and interpretation, and the definition of what is newsworthy in the first place, and they explain the basis and operations of what amount to propaganda campaigns.")Chomsky, Noam. Manufacturing Consent. Pantheon Books. 1988. ISBN 978-0-375-71449-8. （原始内容存档于2007-03-14）.
(原文："the United States does indeed occupy a privileged position in Empire, but this privilege derives not from its similarities to the old European imperialist powers, but from its differences.")Negri, Antonio; Hardt, Michael. Empire. Harvard University Press. 2000: xiii–xiv [2007-03-29]. ISBN 978-0-674-00671-3. （原始内容存档于2021-04-12）.
(原文："we don't seek empires. We're not imperialistic. We never have been.")Bookman, Jay. Let's just say it's not an empire. Atlanta Journal-Constitution. 2003-06-25. （原始内容存档于2007年2月3日）.
(原文："I want no prisoners. I wish you to kill and burn, the more you kill and burn the better it will please me. I want all persons killed who are capable of bearing arms in actual hostilities against the United States.")Miller (1982), op. cit. p. 220. See also Wikiquote: Philippine-American War Quotes （页面存档备份，存于互联网档案馆）.
(原文"the United States would set up a constabulary, a quasi-military police force led by Americans and made up of local enlisted men. Then the Americans would work with local officials to administer a variety of public services, from vaccinations and schools to tax collection. American officials, though often resented, usually proved more efficient and less venal than their native predecessors... Holding fair elections became a top priority because once a democratically elected government was installed, the Americans felt they could withdraw." )
(原文："the United States was least likely to intervene in those nations (such as Argentina and Costa Rica) where American investors held the biggest stakes. The longest occupations were undertaken in precisely those countries--Nicaragua, Haiti, the Dominican Republic--where the United States had the smallest economic stakes... Unlike the Dutch in the East Indies, the British in Malaya, or the French in Indochina, the Americans left virtually no legacy of economic exploitation.")Boot, Max. Neither New nor Nefarious: The Liberal Empire Strikes Back. Current History. November 2003, 102 (667). （原始内容存档于2008-05-15）.
(原文："If we really are imperial, we rule over a very funny sort of empire... The United States hasn't annexed anyone's soil since the Spanish-American War... Imperial powers order and subjects obey. But in our case, we offer the Turks strategic guarantees, political support — and money... Isolationism, parochialism, and self-absorption are far stronger in the American character than desire for overseas adventurism.")Hanson, Victor Davis. A Funny Sort of Empire. National Review. November 2002 [2007-03-29]. （原始内容存档于2008-05-11）.
(原文："the United States has pursued imperial policies, especially toward weak countries in the periphery. But U.S. relations with Europe, Japan, China, and Russia cannot be described as imperial... the use or threat of force is unthinkable. Their economies are deeply interwoven... they form a political order built on bargains, diffuse reciprocity, and an array of intergovernmental institutions and ad hoc working relationships. This is not empire; it is a U.S.-led democratic political order that has no name or historical antecedent.")Ikenberry, G. John. Illusions of Empire: Defining the New American Order. Foreign Affairs. March–April 2004. （原始内容存档于2012-07-09）.
(原文："With the exception of the purchase of Alaska from Russia in 1867, American territory had remained fixed since 1848. In the 1890s a new spirit of expansion took hold... Yet Americans, who had themselves thrown off the shackles of empire, were not comfortable with administering one. In 1902 American troops left Cuba... The Philippines obtained... complete independence in 1946. Puerto Rico became a self-governing commonwealth... and Hawaii became a state in 1959.")ed. George Clack. A brief history of the United States. A Portrait of the USA. United States Information Agency. September 1997 [2006-03-20]. （原始内容存档于2007-12-01）.
(原文："So influential has been the discourse insisting on American specialness, altruism and opportunity, that imperialism in the United States as a word or ideology has turned up only rarely and recently in accounts of the United States culture, politics and history. But the connection between imperial politics and culture in North America, and in particular in the United States, is astonishingly direct.")
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