The words sound strange on American lips, yet especially since the lightning U.S. victory in Afghanistan, they’ve been spoken with increasing frequency—and not only as an indictment. Other concepts—superpower, hegemon, hyperpower—seem inadequate to describing America’s position today. Does empire fill the bill? We put the question to a group of distinguished thinkers: How should we conceive of America’s role in the world? Is America really an empire? And should it resist or embrace an imperial identity?