The issue focused on the post-imperial question: in the US, the US government's claim to the land of the 16th and 17th century is not as clear as in the rest of the world. (The US was the first to claim the land, in fact, in 1820, and the post-imperial question is the last of the three main issues to be settled in the US. The other two are the question of how to deal with the social and political problems of the 20th