A little over a year ago Niall Ferguson published Empire: The Rise and Demise of the British World Order and the Lessons for Global Power. A short version of the general argument of the book can be found in "America: An Empire in Denial", an article excerpted from the introduction and the conclusion and published in The Chronicle of Higher Education in March 2003. The theme of America's state of denial about its empire plays a large role in his latest book Colossus.
At the beginning of March 2004, Ferguson gave a lecture at the American Enterprise Institute entitled The End of Europe?. Europe, he says, is an "impire" — yes, that's spelled correctly — or, put more perspicuously, an imploding political entity whose future is anywhere from uncertain to downright bleak.
The continent's declining population, Ferguson says, is the biggest threat to Europe's future. This notion of "impire" is the subject of chapter 7 of Colossus.