Examines how the presence of the United States as a colonial power in Southeast Asia was perceived by Americans, and how it influenced Southeast Asians and European imperial powers in the region

Throughout its history, the United States has been both imperialistic and anticolonial: imperialistic in its expansion across the continent and across oceans to colonies such as the Philippines, and anticolonial in its rhetoric and ideology. How did this contradiction shape its interactions with European colonists and Southeast Asians after the United States joined the ranks of colonial powers in 1898? Anne L. Foster argues that the actions of the United States functioned primarily to uphold, and even strengthen, the colonial order in Southeast Asia. The United States participated in international agreements to track and suppress the region’s communists and radical nationalists, and in economic agreements benefiting the colonial powers. Yet the American presence did not always serve colonial ends; American cultural products (including movies and consumer goods) and its economic practices (such as encouraging indigenous entrepreneurship) were appropriated by Southeast Asians for their own purposes. Scholars have rarely explored the interactions among the European colonies of Southeast Asia in the early twentieth century. Foster is the first to incorporate the United States into such an analysis. As she demonstrates, the presence of the United States as a colonial power in Southeast Asia after the First World War helps to explain the resiliency of colonialism in the region. It also highlights the inexorable and appealing changes that Southeast Asians perceived as possibilities for the region’s future.

"“[Foster’s] study is of real value as a foray into this topic, and as a demonstration of the advantages of a comparative approach. . . . Future scholars who seek to proceed further with the project of seeing United States imperialism in comparative perspective(s) will surely have to consider this work as one of their first points of departure.”" - Itinerario

"“Anne Foster has produced a well-crafted and richly documented monograph that addresses some of the most seminal issues of U.S. foreign policy, including isolationism and exceptionalism. . . . Foster’s monograph is an important contribution to our understanding of the continuities and contradictions in U.S. attitudes toward Southeast Asia and the perceptions of the United States by the peoples of the region well before the Cold War and the War in Vietnam.”" - H-Diplo, H-Net Reviews

"“Anne Foster’s Projections of Power is a significant scholarly achievement which helps to reshape our understanding of U.S. power in Southeast Asia on the eve of its global ascendance. . . . Anne Foster has written a fine and provocative book, and largely succeeds in integrating the United States into the history of interwar Southeast Asia in ways that neither read as prelude to the Cold War nor exaggerate American difference in its colonial attitudes and practices.”" - H-Diplo, H-Net Reviews

"“Anne Foster’s well written and extensively researched book. . . . Based on extensive and detailed research in a variety of both official and unofficial British, US, Dutch, and French archives, as well as wide reading in the secondary literature on modern South East Asian history, there is to my knowledge no other volume comparable to this.”" - Asian Affairs

"“Foster raises interesting questions about the nature of U.S. involvement in Southeast Asia during the early years of the twentieth century. Her conclusions about economic and cultural influence in the region are especially insightful. . . . Foster has identified a promising topic for future research and her book may be profitably read by historians of Southeast Asia.”" - American Historical Review

"“Professor Foster makes a compelling case that U.S. imperialism warrants reexamination. . . . Projections of Power is ground-breaking. It ties together the histories of U.S. foreign, economic, and cultural relations, European colonialism, and Southeast Asia. The research on which the arguments are based is remarkable, the extensive use of multilingual and multi-archival sources praiseworthy. Professor Foster’s book will engage scholars of U.S. foreign relations, imperialism, and Southeast Asian history, while representing a significant contribution to the historiography of international history.”" - H-Diplo, H-Net Reviews