Anti-Americanism

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Anti-Americanism or anti-American sentiment is opposition or hostility to the people, culture or policies of the United States. Contemporary examples typically focus on opposition to United States policy, though historically the term has been applied to a variety of concepts.

Interpretations of anti-Americanism have often been polarised. Paul Hollander has called it "a relentless critical impulse toward American social, economic, and political institutions, traditions, and values."^[1] However, it has also been suggested that Anti-Americanism cannot be isolated as a consistent phenomenon and that the term merely signifies a rough composite of stereotypes, prejudices and criticisms towards Americans or the United States.^[2]

Globally, increases in perceived anti-American attitudes appear to correlate with particular policies,^[3] such as the Vietnam and Iraq^[4] wars. For this reason, critics sometimes argue the label is a propaganda term that is used to dismiss any censure of the United States as irrational.^[5]

Contents 1 Use of the term 1.1 As a propaganda term 2 History 2.1 Anti-globalism 2.2 National Identity 2.3 Perceived ideological contradictions 3 Regional attitudes 3.1 Australia 3.2 Europe 3.3 Asia 3.4 Middle East 3.5 Latin America 4 See also 5 References 5.1 Notes 5.2 Resources 6 External links 6.1 Government Documents 6.2 Magazine & Newspaper Articles

[edit] Use of the term

The term is sometimes used as a pejorative by those who object to a particular stance toward the United States or its policies.^{[citation needed]} Advocates of the significance of the term argue, for instance, that anti-Americanism represents a coherent and dangerous ideological current, comparable to anti-Semitism.^{[citation needed]} Anti-Americanism has also been described as an attempt to frame the consequences of U.S. policy choices as evidence of a specifically American moral failure, as opposed to what some may claim to be unavoidable failures of a complicated foreign policy that comes with superpower status.^[6]

The use of the term anti-Americanism has been cataloged from 1948, entering wide political language in the 1950s.^[7] The related term "Americanization" (which is thought often to elicit anti-Americanism) has been dated to a French source as early as 1867.^[8] Labelling earlier attitudes and commentary "anti-American" is thus partly a retroactive exercise, though there are numerous examples of hostility directed at the country from at least the late 18th century onwards.

[edit] As a propaganda term

Its status as an "-ism" is a greatly contended aspect and it is often called a propaganda term by critics who feel it is used to dismiss any censure of the United States as irrational. American academic Noam Chomsky, a prolific critic of U.S. policy, asserts that the use of the term within the U.S. has parallels with methods employed by totalitarian states or military dictatorships; he compares the term to "anti-Sovietism", a label used by the Kremlin to suppress dissident or critical thought, for instance.^[9][10][11]

Other scholars have also suggested that a plural of anti-Americanisms, specific to country and time period, more accurately describe the phenomenon than any broad generalization.^[12]

[edit] History

The French Revolution created a new type of anti-American political thought, hostile to the political institutions of the United States and their impact upon Europe. Furthermore, the Romantic strain of European thought and literature, hostile to the Enlightenment view of reason and obsessed with history and national character, disdained the American project.

The German poet Nikolaus Lenau encapsulated the Romantic view, "With the expression Bodenlosigkeit (absence of ground), I think I am able to indicate the general character of all American institutions; what we call Fatherland is here only a property insurance scheme."^[13]

In 1899, English poet Rudyard Kipling wrote a poem titled The White Man's Burden (subtitled The United States and The Philippine Islands). It was written in regard to the U.S. conquest of the Philippines and other former Spanish colonies,and urged the U.S. to take up the "burden" of empire, as had Britain and other European nations.^[14][15] American reformer and author Ernest Howard Crosby parodied Kipling’s work in The Real White Man’s Burden, published in his collection titled Swords and Plowshares. Crosby also wrote a satirical, anti-imperialist novel, Captain Jinks, Hero, that parodied the career of General Frederick Funston, the man who had captured Philippine leader Emilio Aguinaldo in 1901.^[16][17]

With the rise of American industry in the late nineteenth century, intellectual anti-American discourse entered a new form. Mass production, the Taylor system, and the speed of American life and work became a major threat to some intellectuals' view of European life and tradition.

Friedrich Nietzsche wrote, "The breathless haste with which they (the Americans) work - the distinctive vice of the new world - is already beginning ferociously to infect old Europe and is spreading a spiritual emptiness over the continent."^[18][19] It has been argued that this thesis transformed into a Heideggerian critique of technologism. Heidegger wrote in 1935: "Europe lies today in a great pincer, squeezed between Russia on the one side and America on the other. From a metaphysical point of view, Russia and America are the same, with the same dreary technological frenzy and the same unrestricted organization of the average man."^[20] Oswald Spengler had made similar claims in 1931's Man and Technics and his 1934 best-seller The Hour of Decision.^{[citation needed]} In 1921, the Spaniard Luis Araquistáin wrote a book called El Peligro Yanqui (“The Yankee Peril”), in which he condemned American nationalism, mechanization, anti-socialism (“socialism is a social heresy there”) and architecture, finding particular fault with the country’s skyscrapers, which he felt diminished individuality and increased anonymity. He called the United States “a colossal child: all appetite...”^[21]

[edit] Anti-globalism

Main article: Anti-globalization

According to its opponents, neoliberal globalization has magnified the visibility of trade conflicts and decreased job security^[22], and is often attributed to either U.S. or Anglo-American influence^[23] Anti-globalist sentiments stem from^{[dubious – discuss]} perceptions that the United States was the inspiration and architect for globalization and neoliberal free trade policy, which those opposed to it claim is exploitative, and leads to conditions that either impoverish or do not enrich developing nations. According to some critics, globalization also exposed previously isolated countries to the spread of the English language and American popular culture, a process that some have labeled cultural imperialism (see American Cultural Imperialism). The 'Anglo-American' corporate business model is the subject of much opposition ("the EU constitution on offer, Laurent Fabius had argued, was too low on social protection and too high on shameful Anglo-Saxon economic liberalism")^[24]

[edit] National Identity

In Iran, the cry of "Death to America" has been used in the parliament^[25] and at political rallies.^[26] Certain forms of social identity theory argue that the existence of "an other" is crucial to the development of group identity. In the case of a European strand of anti-Americanism, some authors, like A.S. Markowitz in Uncouth Nation: Why Europe Dislikes America, argue it would be linked to the creation of a coalescing European identity.^[27]

Others, such as Minxin Pei of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, suggest that the unique character of American nationalism is the cause of some anti-Americanism.^[28] According to Noam Chomsky, the concept is totalitarian.^[29]

[edit] Perceived ideological contradictions

The fall of the Soviet Union may have brought an increase in anti-Americanism because the U.S. was left as the world's only superpower and people who formerly saw the United States as a bastion against Communism or needed the American security umbrella no longer felt the need to support the United States. Where the governments of allied states in particular had felt disinclined to openly criticize U.S. policy during the Cold War, they have had fewer such qualms since. "By cultivating an anti-American position, Europe feigns membership in a global opposition of the downtrodden by America."^[30] In addition, criticism of American economic sanctions and embargoes toward various countries, including Cuba, Sudan, North Korea and Iran, while maintaining commercial relations with countries such as the PRC generates resentment.

French author Jean-François Revel wrote that "For skeptics of democratic capitalism, the United States is, quite simply, the enemy. For many years, and still today, a principal function of anti-Americanism has been to discredit the nation that stands as the supreme alternative to socialism. More recently, Islamists, anti-modern Greens, and others have taken to pillorying the U.S. for the same reason."^[27]

[edit] Regional attitudes

Anti-Americanism in some form has existed across different American presidential administrations, though its severity may wax and wane considerably depending upon particular economic or geopolitical issues. George W. Bush's presidency, for instance, is widely seen as inducing a major increase in Anti-Americanism,^[31] with the 2003 invasion of Iraq affecting global opinions of the U.S.^[32]

[edit] Australia

While not to the extent of Europe there is a rising attitude of anti-Americanism in Australia.^{[citation needed]} However, anti-American sentiments have been present in Australian culture since the settlement and incorporation of the Australian continent by the British Empire in 1788, in which a mixture of anti-Americanism and Anglophilia developed in Australia and shaped the nation's views towards the United States and Great Britain. In recent years, the close relations of George W. Bush and John Howard, as well as unconditioned support for the War on Terror, has led some to believe that Australia has become a "lap dog" to the U.S. The continued war in Iraq has also led to an increase of anti-Americanism. Australian military involvement in the Vietnam War during the 1960s and early 1970s was even more divisive and provoked significant anti-Americanism among certain sections of Australian society in those decades, particularly as a result of left-wing agitation within the trade-union movement and among university students. The politically motivated deployment of Australian troops in the Korean War during the early 1950s also increased anti-American sentiment among some Australians in previous decades.^[33]

[edit] Europe

During the George W. Bush administration, public opinion of America has declined in most European countries. A Pew Global Attitudes Project poll shows "favorable opinions" of America between 2000 and 2006 dropping from 83% to 56% in the United Kingdom, from 62% to 39% in France, from 78% to 37% in Germany and from 50% to 23% in Spain.^[35]

In Britain, a traditional U.S. ally, public affection for the USA has measurably declined in recent years. A June 2006 poll by Populus for The Times showed that the number of Britons agreeing that "it is important for Britain’s long-term security that we have a close and special relationship with the U.S." had fallen to 58% (from 71% in April), and that 65% believed that "Britain’s future lies more with Europe than America".^[36] Only 44% agreed that "America is a force for good in the world." A later poll reported in The Guardian during the 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict said that 63% of Britons felt that Britain is tied too closely to the U.S.^[37]

In Britain there is resentment that the native language is becoming Americanised, especially amongst the younger populace, with key examples being train station (instead of railway station) and spellings like sulfur instead of sulphur creeping into children's education.^[38]

Fabbrini (2004) reports the American invasion of Iraq in the spring of 2003 brought anti-Americanism to the surface of public debate in Europe. The reaction to U.S. unilateralism has been nourished by a complex of fears, two in particular: the presumed economic and cultural Americanization of Europe and the Americanization of the European political process. The overwhelming global power acquired by the United States in the post-Cold War era and the unilateral exercise of that power, especially after 9/11 attacks September 11, 2001 fed the anti-American sentiment contributing to its most militant manifestation. In early 2002, the #1 best seller in France was L'Effroyable imposture, which claimed that 9/11 was a conspiracy orchestrated by the U.S. government^[39]. It broke the French record for first-month book sales.^[40] In Europe in 2002, vandalism of American companies was reported in Venice, Athens, Berlin, Zürich, Tbilisi, and Moscow.^[41]

European anti-Americanism well predates the invasion of Iraq and the Bush Administration, with criticisms of American "hegemonism", the coining of the term "hyperpuissance", and the dream of making the EU a "counterbalance" to the United States all flaring up in the 1990s. The usual criticisms were also levied, that America was enforcing sanctions against Iraq for oil, and attributing sinister motives to the bombing of the Chinese embassy in Serbia.^[42] French anti-americanism predates the founding of the United States with the belief that it was a barbaric land and all who went there also degenerated.^[43]

[edit] Asia

In Japan and South Korea, much anti-Americanism has focused on the presence and behavior of American military personnel, aggravated especially by high-profile cases of sexual assaults on locals by U.S. servicemembers such as 1995 Okinawan rape incident when a 12 year old girl was raped and beaten by three US Marines. The on-going U.S. military presence in Okinawa remains a contentious issue in Japan.^[44]

Robert Hathaway, director of the Wilson Center's Asia program, wrote "the growth of anti-American sentiment in both Japan and South Korea must be seen not simply as a response to American policies and actions, but as reflective of deeper domestic trends and developments within these Asian countries. Or to put it another way: even at this moment of U.S. preeminence, not everything that happens around the world is a response to American might, or to decisions taken in Washington."^[45]

[edit] Middle East

The Middle East region has been a focal point of much anti-American sentiment in the latter decades of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st, often blamed on specific U.S. policies in the region, particularly its close relationship with Israel and its stance on such matters as Sudan's civil war and Darfur.

In 2002 and 2004, Zogby International polled the favourable/unfavourable ratings of the U.S. in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco and the United Arab Emirates. In Zogby's 2002 survey, 76% of Egyptians had a negative attitude toward the United States, compared with 98% in 2004. In Morocco, 61% viewed the country unfavorably in 2002, but in two years, that number has jumped to 88 percent. In Saudi Arabia, such responses rose from 87% in 2002 to 94% in June. Attitudes were virtually unchanged in Lebanon but improved slightly in the UAE, from 87 % who said in 2002 that they disliked the United States to 73% in 2004.^[46] However most of these countries showed a marked distinction between negative perceptions of the United States, and much less negative of Americans.^[46]

The Pew Research Center probed more deeply the stereotypes of westerners in the Middle East. While more than 70% of Middle Easterners identified more than three negative characteristics of the Westerner stereotype, the three strongest were selfish, violent and greedy. Few had positive opinions of Westerners, but the strongest positive stereotypes were devout and respectful of women.^[47] The report also demonstrates strong unfavorable views of Jews and weakly favorable views of Christians predominate in the Middle East. In Jordan, 61%, Pakistan 27%, and Turkey 16% have favorable views of Christians while in Jordan 1%, Pakistan 6%, and Turkey 15% have favourable views of Jews.^[47]

Cultural anti-Americanism in the Middle East may have its origins with Sayyid Qutb, an influential Egyptian author, who Paul Berman titled "the Philosopher of Islamic Terror".^[48] Qutb, the leading intellectual of the Muslim Brotherhood, studied in Greely, Colorado, from 1948-50, and wrote a book, The America I Have Seen based on his impressions. In it he decried everything in American from individual freedom and taste in music to Church socials and haircuts.^[49]

[edit] Latin America

In Latin America, anti-American sentiment has deep roots dating back to the 1830s and the Texas Revolution^{[citation needed]}. Other significant 19th century events which led to a rise in anti-American sentiment were the 1846-1848 Mexican-American War. In South America, the 1855 American intervention in Nicaragua, the U.S. propiciation of the Spanish-American War of 1898, and the support for the 1954 coup in Guatemala against Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán, the United States embargo against Cuba, the 1964 Brazilian coup d'état, Operation Condor, the 1973 Chilean coup d'état, the Salvadoran Civil War, the support of the Contras and the refusal to extradite a terrorist, have fueled anti-Americanism in that region. Similarly, U.S. support for dictators such as Augusto Pinochet, Anastasio Somoza, Alfredo Stroessner as part of the Dirty War has influenced regional attitudes.^[50]

The perceived failures of the neo-liberal reforms of the 1980s and the 1990s intensified opposition to the Washington consensus,^[51] leading to a resurgence in support for Pan-Americanism, support for popular movements in the region, the nationalization of key industries and centralization of government.^[52] The movement saw the rise of leaders critical of United States policies throughout the region. Most vocal has been Hugo Chávez of Venezuela, who is known for his strong opposition towards the American government, particularly George W. Bush, driving him to address him in many ways; referring to him as "the devil" before the United Nations, ^[53] an example of demonization. He has clearly stated his intent to use Venezuela's oil resources as a card "against the toughest country in the world, the United States."^[54]

[edit] See also

• List of assassinations and acts of terrorism against Americans
• "The Ugly American"
• Un-American
• Great Satan

[edit] References

[edit] Notes

[edit] Resources

[edit] External links

The external links in this article may not follow Wikipedia's content policies or guidelines. Please improve this article by removing excessive or inappropriate external links.

• Chiozza, Giacomo (November 7 2004). "Love and Hate: Anti-Americanism in the Islamic World". Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences.  PDF file
• Furia, Peter A.; Russell E. Lucas (September 2006). "Determinants of Arab Public Opinion on Foreign Relations.". International Studies Quarterly 50 (3): 585. 
• Johnston, Gregory (August 2006). "Anti-Americanism: An Exploration of a Contested Concept in Western Europe". Dissertation.  PDF file
• Katzenstein, Peter J.; Robert O. Keohane (2005). Anti-americanisms in World Politics. Cornell University Press: Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences. ISBN 0-8014-7351-9. 
  • Choudhury, Nusrat. "The Economic Impact of Anti-Americanism".  PDF draft chapter later found in the book Anti-americanisms in World Politics
  • Katzenstein, Peter J.; Robert O. Keohane (2005). "Types and Sources of Anti-Americanism: A Framework for Analysis". University of Southern California Center for International Studies.  Word document draft chapter later found in the book Anti-americanisms in World Politics
• McPherson, Alan (Winter/Spring 2004). "Myths of Anti-Americanism: The Case of Latin America". The Brown Journal of World Affairs X (2): 141.  PDF file
• Rubin, Barry; Judith Rubin (Summer/Fall 2004). "Anti-Americanism Re-Examined". The Brown Journal of World Affairs XI (I): 17. 
• Shlapentokh, Vladimir; Joshua Woods (Winter / Spring 2004). "The Threat of International Terrorism and the Image of the United States Abroad". The Brown Journal of World Affairs X (2): 167.  PDF file
• Vedrine, Hubert (Winter/Spring 2004). "On Anti-Americanism". The Brown Journal of World Affairs X (2): 117.  PDF file
• Kohut, Andrew (December 2003). "Anti-Americanism: Causes and Characteristics". The Pew Research Center.  HTML file

[edit] Government Documents

• Schneider, W. (September 23 2004). "Final report of the Defense Science Board (DSB) Task Force on Strategic Communication, United States Office of the Secretary of the Defense". US Pentagon.  PDF file
• Regan, Tom (November 29 2004). "They hate our policies, not our freedom Pentagon report contains major criticisms of administration". Christian Science Monitor.  Explanation of the report

[edit] Magazine & Newspaper Articles

• Arlidge, John (September 13, 2001). "BBC Apologises to Envoy for Anti-American Abuse". Guardian Unlimited. 
• Ceaser, James W. (Summer 2003). "A Genealogy of Anti-Americanism". The Public Interest. 
• Fleming, Chris; John O'Carroll. "Understanding Anti-Americanism". Anthropoetics 9 (2). 
• Fulford, Robert (September 14, 2001). "U.S. Bashing No Longer a Game". National Post. 
• Jacobson, Nora (November 28, 2004). "Before You Flee to Canada, Can We Talk?". The Washington Post. 
• Kagan, Robert (June-July 2002). "Power and Weakness". Policy Review. 
• Lieven, Anatol (September 28 2001). "After the Attacks: America's New Cold War". Guardian. , Carnegie Endowment for Int'l Peace
• Lobe, Jim (June 3 2003). "Views of U.S. Plummet". Int'l Press Service News Agency. 
• Mead, Walter Russell (March/April 2003). "Why Do They Hate Us? Two Books Take Aim at French Anti-Americanism". Foreign Affairs. 
• Netanyahu, Benjamin (September 20, 2001). "Statement for the Government Reform Committee". http://www.Bnetanyahu.com. 
• Porter, Henry (April 4 2001). "The Great Divide, Why Europe and America are World's Apart". Guardian. 
• Revel, Jean-François (December 2003). "Europe's Anti-American Obsession". The American Enterprise. 
• Rubin, Barry; Judith Rubin (2004). Hating America: A History. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-516773-2. 
• Staff Writer (April 2006). "Anti-Americanism 'feels like racism'". British Broadcasting Corporation. 
• Wellemeyer, Jonathan (December 20, 2006). "Hollywood and the Spread of Anti-Americanism". National Public Radio. 
• BBC question and answers article
• How the World Sees America - Washington Post Feature

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