Colonial Constitutionalism: The Tyranny of United States’ Offshore Territorial Policy and Relations

This text exposes one of the great failures of American constitutional democracy. The creation of an American empire over the 20th century has violated the fundamental philosophical meaning and political purpose of constitutionalism. A modern expansionist American republic has annexed offshore territories but contradicted the spirit and letter of the Founding Fathers by failing to admit these acquisitions into the Union. The text’s focused case studies analyze each of America’s quasi-colonies, revealing how the perpetuation of a now anachronistic foreign policy has rendered the inhabitants second-class citizens. It illustrates the pressing need for a nation fundamentally incompatible with imperialism and colonialism to grant full US statehood to its overseas possessions or face the growing demands for sovereign independence.