Critical Perspectives on the Concept of the ‘National Interest’: American Imperialism, British Foreign Policy and the Middle East

The 'Occupy' protests that began in New York on 17 September 2011, and spread to London and many other cities around the world through the autumn of that year, introduced a new phrase to the political lexicon: 'we are the 99 per cent'. What the protesters aimed to convey to the wider public with that slogan was an explicitly class-based critique. The global economy was being run in the interests of wealthy elites and corporations, particularly banks — in other words, the 'one per cent' — and not in the interests of the general public, the '99 per cent'. Governments were failing or refusing to prioritise the 'national interest' and were instead acting as state managers for a capitalist ruling class (Mason 2012).