Purchase
Losing Friends and Making Enemies in the Anti-American Century
PublicAffairs
April 2006
272 pages
ISBN: 1586483005
Hardcover
Add to Wish List
Non-Fiction | Non-Fiction Political
A masterly and caustic examination of America's role in
fostering anti-Americanism over fifty years, by a Council on
Foreign Relations senior fellow and award-winning writer In 1945 the U.S. was the founding impulse behind the
cornerstones of the International Community: the World Bank,
International Monetary Fund and most of all the United
Nations. Untainted by colonialism or fascism, heroic in
warfare and idealistic at home, the U.S. presented itself as
a paragon to inspire a less noble and divided world. Sixty
years later, that perception had been almost completely
reversed. America had, in fact, quietly sowed the seeds of its own
decline in the eyes of the world in its own back yard.
Anti-Americanism, now a global phenomenon, was road tested
in South America when most of the rest of the world was too
distracted to notice or care. There, under the guise of
anti-communism, we sponsored dictatorships, turned a blind
eye to killing squads and tolerated the subversion of
democracy. Almost nobody knew, so it didn't matter, right? Wrong. On two counts. First, South America remembered. And
second, encouraged by our success, we convinced ourselves
that pre-emptive Americanism was a policy that could be
shipped worldwide. This proved to be a big misjudgment. The
world noticed and, helped by better scrutiny and faster
technology, anti-Americanism flourished among America's
closest allies beyond the Americas in a way and to a depth
not seen before. As this reaches a crucial tipping point,
Julia Sweig offers a brilliant and blistering history of
what went wrong, and a feisty and compelling prescription
for how to sort it out.
Comments
No comments posted.
Registered users may leave comments.
Log in or register now!
| 
© 2003-2024 off-the-edge.net
all rights reserved Privacy Policy