American dream, global nightmare

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Marcin Zaborowski

During the eight years of George W. Bush{u2019}s presidency America{u2019}s grand strategy changed. The terrorist attacks of 9/11 profoundly altered America{u2019}s view of the world. But the manner of Bush{u2019}s response to the attacks is the subject of controversy and his major foreign policy decisions, especially the invasion of Iraq, are now considered to have been misjudged by the majority of Americans. Whether Bush will be ultimately judged a failure or not, it is likely that some of the main policies associated with his name will be pursued by his successor {u2013} be he Democrat or Republican. The European Union is the closest ally of the United States. The Europeans and the Americans are linked to each other by historical, economic and political ties like no other powers in the world. America{u2019}s foreign policy reflects on the Europeans too, in the sense that Europeans are often associated with America{u2019}s foreign policy in the eyes of the wider world. Indeed, the outside world often makes no distinction between the US and the EU, simply branding the two as {u2018}the West{u2019}. However, the vast majority of Europeans disapproved of Bush{u2019}s foreign policy, especially his decision to invade Iraq, and transatlantic relations consequently suffered during his presidency. The end of the Bush era creates an opportunity for a new departure and a renewed dialogue between the EU and the US. But European expectations of the change that the new president will bring about are often unrealistic. This paper gives an account of Bush{u2019}s legacy and its impact on the next US administration{u2019}s conduct of foreign policy. It examines the ideology and policies that have characterised Bush{u2019}s administration and maps out the likely future orientation of America{u2019}s foreign policy. The paper focuses on US relations with Iraq, Iran and China, as well as touching on Europe and Russia.

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Ilario Pantano

"In 1780, the darkest hour of the American Revolution, the British went down to the South and overplayed their hand. By burning the bibles of backwoodsmen and threatening their honor, the British ignited a firestorm. Ordinary folk from throughout the Southern colonies spontaneously banded together and rode for hundreds of miles to King's Mountain in South Carolina to attack and destroy the British forces in the most spectacular, unusual and decisive battle of the war. Never heard of the massacre that saved the American Revolution? No idea that liberty was actually won in the South? Red state values of God, guns and guts are being dismantled by leftists airbrushing our past in order to 'transform' our future. Grand Theft History features shocking new evidence that exposes the latest battlefield in the culture wars--American history."--Front jacket flap.

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Lewis H. Lapham

For the better part of twenty years Lewis H. Lapham has sketched the American social and political landscape with a fine sense of history and a sharp and caustic wit. In The Wish for Kings, his most provocative book to date, Lapham obliges us to take a long hard look at what has become of our hallowed democratic tradition. Although we like to believe that we live by Lincoln's famous words - "government of the people, by the people, for the people"--We have become accustomed to a government by and for the friends of privilege. The promise of democracy is synonymous with the idea of the citizen, but to people who have grown tired of self-government the belief in kings and queens and fairy tales replaces the will to engage in the rude and often uncomfortable arts of politics. Lapham notes the effects of our distaste for objection and dissent - an apathetic public debate, 90 percent of the wealth in the hands of 5 percent of the population, the media and the universities united in their defense of oligarchy - and discusses at length the ways in which a courtier spirit (the obverse of the democratic spirit) subverts and weakens the hopes of a free republic. It is a discussion that has particular relevance to the present moment. If the wish for kings is as old as Babylon and as modern as the worship of Hollywood celebrity, our 1992 presidential election translated the wish into nineteen million votes for H. Ross Perot. Frightened by the weakness in the economy and dissatisfied with the wisdom in office in Washington, a sizable percentage of the electorate embraced in the figure of a Texas millionaire what it imagined to be the comforts of autocracy. The question remains as to whether the enthusiasm for Perot was merely an angry protest against a government that had arrogantly distanced itself from the American people, or whether it expressed a more general longing for a magical figure capable of quieting all our fears and answering all our prayers. The question is an urgent one, and it defines the task of the Clinton administration. Unless President Clinton can sustain the public faith in the practice as well as the theory of Democracy, it is possible that the idea of democratic self-government will come to be seen as a once noble experiment no longer adequate to the specifications of the twenty-first century. The several facets of this question come into brilliant focus in this important book by one of our most incisive social critics. No one who cares about the future of our nation should miss reading The Wish for Kings.

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Christoph Bluth

"A major theme of the book is Germany's promotion of both the deepening and widening of the European Union; using the example of EMU, the book reaches conclusions that contradict many of the views expressed in the general political debate in Britain and elsewhere and thereby makes its own original and perhaps controversial contribution. Finally the book examines how Germany has fared in developing its position as a 'civilian power' in the context of the future prospects for European security. The author concludes that Germany has a central role to play in the future of the European system of states, but that it is neither to be feared nor that its power should be exaggerated."--BOOK JACKET.