Is the US actually an empire? And if so, why does hardly anyone talk about it? In 2012, Leo Panitch and Sam Ginidin published an award-winning book. They argue that the US is indeed an empire and that the American state was the primary force behind the expansion of capitalism around the world after WWII . The authors hold that the US established a new form of imperial rule with unprecedented features: First, the American Empire is an informal empire. The US refuses to acknowledge itself as such to its own citizens and to the rest of the world. Second, the American Empire is a non-territorial empire. It does not depend on territorial conquest and direct territorial rule. Its subject states are not colonies but instead known as allies.