Perhaps the most iconic image of overreach in modern popular imagination – the Fall of Saigon, as a member of the CIA helps evacuees up a ladder onto an Air America helicopter on the roof of 22 Gia Long Street April 29, 1975 (public domain)

(3) IMPERIAL OVERREACH

Synonymous with decline and fall, really.

“Imperial overreach, also known as imperial overstretch, happens when a country spends too much money and military power trying to control a large empire, making it weak and vulnerable to collapse”.

It has arguably been popularized, at least implicitly, by historians writing of imperial decline or defeat in general, not least Edward Gibbon – but certainly in best known form by Paul Kennedy in his book The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers.

However, I would argue it comes in two forms, mobile and static.

The former is imperial overstretch by an empire literally overextending itself beyond its borders, typically by failed military venture or commitment, often by analogy to the Vietnam War – although ironically the Vietnam War did not in fact result in American overreach or overstretch but rather imbalance.

A better example is my pro tip for European empires in modern history – you can have a maritime empire or you can strive for continental domination, but you can’t do both. Just ask Spain, France and Germany. Although for Germany, it was the attempts at empire by continental domination that were the overstretch – in both world wars. Similarly, all three major Axis powers in the Second World War were examples of imperial overstretch.

The other form of imperial overstretch is static – where an empire’s borders remain largely the same, but its own decline renders it unable to defend those borders as it formerly did. The classic example is the Roman Empire, although the argument remains to the extent that it was the result of internal decline as against external fall to adversaries with increased capacity, strength, or power.