BOOK OF THE MONTH
Paradise & Power: America and Europe in the new world order
by Robert Kagan
Atlantic (1843541777)
Reviewer: Sarah Elphick — Bibliographer, Lindsay and Croft.
Robert Kagan's topical essay begins with a premise widely quoted by journalists and politicians during the build-up to the war in Iraq; 'Americans are from Mars, Europeans are from Venus.' Based on an article published in Policy Review in June of last year, Kagan's ideas on the differing attitudes towards conflict across the two continents came at a controversial and extremely relevant time and attempts to fashion a satisfactory argument as to why these supposedly allied powers came to blows over the possibility of a pre-emptive strike on the part of the United States.
Kagan, as an ex-employee of the State Department and current senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, is an individual whom the reader is encouraged to trust — he appears to be a reasonable and diplomatic author who can be believed to have developed a balanced hypothesis on the state of international relations at a very volatile juncture in world history — and whilst to some extent this impression is an accurate one, he falls somewhat short of distancing himself from his own nationality and conditioning.
Many things he says are undeniably true; Europe does indeed appear to concentrate on issues of a social rather than military nature — for example homelessness and climate — whilst America's defence budget far outweighs that which it is prepared to devote to other causes. It is also true that Europe seems to promote the Kantian style of living, in a 'perpetual peace' where culture and education are paramount, as opposed to the Hobbesian, American style of existence where military might is uppermost on the scale of priorities. He follows this train of argument with the idea that it is due to the continents divergent historical experiences that their beliefs of what is required with regards to the Iraq situation differ so greatly. It is here that his hypothesis begins to slightly unravel and the stereotypes he is purporting to dissemble become more and more evident in his thinking.
Kagan asserts, rightly, that having been involved in two incredibly destructive World Wars in the space of half a century has made Europeans fearful of conflict. He goes on however, to argue that Europe has become complacent and even naïve in its attitudes towards war since it has been protected by the United States and its 'umbrella of security.' What he fails to point out is that this fear of conflict is born of empirical experience — both of these wars were fought on European soil and the scars of these events run much deeper than America may understand. In addition to this, Kagan states that the current imbalance of power has helped create the impression amongst Europeans that whilst they have no option of competing militarily with the U.S, they can fight against unilateralism using the weapon of conscience. What is disturbing about this is not that it is false, but that the gesture is so grossly misconstrued.
The Iraq situation has stirred much strong feeling in both continents, as well as in the rest of the world. It is true that America's military strength and ability to distribute troops quickly and efficiently world-wide make it a valuable and essential ally, but it is not true that Europe's attempts to 'multlateralise' the U.S stem wholly from a desire to redress the power imbalance that exists in the modern world. Kagan does a fine job of addressing the fact that there has been a shift in world politics, and also has an understanding of European sentiments as well as American ones. It is just that with the current lack of compromise in the diplomatic world, there appears to be no room for mixing European idealism with American realism.
'Power & Passion' is overall an excellent piece of writing, if occasionally a little repetitive. The sections discussing the 'German problem' and the preferable avenue of appeasement over confrontation are particularly poignant and Kagan is convincing in his argument that Europe is fearful not only of America coming too close to behaving like the German military state which nearly destroyed Europe altogether but also of being forced to up its defence budget in case others, with perhaps less of a Kantian outlook, might do the same. Moreover, Kagan was writing before the Iraqi conflict came to what looks like some kind of conclusion. It remains to be seen how international relations develop in the light of reconstruction, but we can only hope that 'a little common understanding could still go a long way.'
