A great empire, like a great cake, is most easily diminished at the edges.
Turn your attention, therefore, first to your remotest provinces.
— Benjamin Franklin
 As Americans, we don't like to think of the United States as a colonial power. Yet there are currently over four million people living in the U.S. non-state " insular areas" - strategic colonies and commonwealths that, while part of the "American political family," are not equal players in the American political process. These areas are Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, American Samoa, The Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (or CNMI), and Guam. Each of these places is poorer than the poorest of the fifty states. And all of the insular areas face common problems, ranging from weak economies based largely on tourism, to ecological degradation from U.S. military and corporate pollution, to fundamental questions of national and ethnic identity.
American "Insular" Democracy
While full participation in national political life has long been a defining characteristic of American democracy, that participation requires residency within one of the fifty states. Yet there are Americans, on American soil, who do not fit this requirement. Residents of Guam, the CNMI, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands are U.S. citizens – but without a national vote. The residents of American Samoa are U.S. "nationals" who, though they can move freely between Samoa and the mainland U.S., and though they form large communities in several American states, face difficulties in establishing rights of state residency or citizenship.
For Americans living in the insular areas, U.S. citizenship is not "complete" citizenship. In Guam, for instance, citizenship is not constitutionally guaranteed, and can be withdrawn by an act of Congress. None of the insular areas has a voting representative to Congress. The CNMI has had no congressional representative at all. And while most of the insular areas belong to the national political parties, no resident of any of the insular areas may vote in presidential elections.
Despite this lack of representation in national politics, the federal government maintains control over the islands, in many cases reserving for itself the right to override local legislation. This power has manifested itself in a diverse array of controversial situations: from military land-taking to environmental legislation, from the economics of free trade to the endangerment of indigenous cultural practice. Most recently, the US Congress enacted legislation granting a non-voting delegate to the CNMI – but simultaneously removing the CNMI's long-standing control over its own immigration and labor laws. The people of the CNMI had no say whatsoever in the framing, or ratifitying, of this legislation.
For an excellent introduction to the issues confronting the U.S. insular areas,
see "The
Overseas Territories and Commonwealths of the United States of America,"
by attorney Dan MacMeekin.
The Insular Empire will take a close look at two of these insular areas: Guam and the CNMI, which together make up the Marianas Archipelago. These islands are home to over 200,000 U.S. citizens and nationals who maintain a unique and often conflicted relationship with America.
As of 2008, twenty-one U.S. citizens of the Marianas have died in Iraq, serving a U.S. Commander-in-Chief for whom they were not permitted to vote.This mortality rate is over four times higher than that of any state in the union. The US military is also planning a massive buildup on Guam, increasing the island's population by 30%, and straining its resources to the breaking point. But unless things change, the people of Guam will have no say in the matter.
The stories of the Mariana Islands raise troubling and important questions about American identity, democracy, self-determination, and civil and human rights. The Insular Empire will share these stories with a wide American audience, forcing each of us to consider how we can help our nation live up to its responsibilities as a democratic world power.
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