US-led global imperialism or corporation-led global corporation feudalism? The first, a new pax americana, seems the aim of the current Bush administration, and its shape seems fairly obvious: US unilateralism on the way to US hegemony.

But the feudal option is more ambiguous as of yet. The basic ingredients are a collection of fiefs–in our case, multi-national corporations–that compete for predominance in shifting coalitions and occasional feuds. (Freeholders are best advised to either ally themselves with a winner or stay out of the way. Serfs are advised to pray for mercy.) But who gets to adjudicate these feuds? A monarch of some sort–perhaps the US–who manages to keep them in line through a monopoly on armed violence and corporate corporal punishment? A parliamentary House of Lords (ie., multinational corporations), its power both guaranteed and checked by the monarch–perhaps some descendent of the WTO or IMF? Or a council of tribal chiefs, whose power could but rarely intervene in vindictive economic blood feuds?