Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)

DATE=June 18, 2003

TYPE=Dateline

TITLE=America and the World

NUMBER=7-37563

BYLINE=Jaroslaw Anders

TELEPHONE=619-0252

DATELINE=Washington

EDITOR=Bodnar/Lavon

CONTENT=

DISK: DATELINE THEME [PLAYED IN STUDIO, FADED UNDER DATELINE HOST VOICE OR PROGRAMMING MATERIAL]

HOST: According to a recent study, America's image in the world improved slightly after the war in Iraq. Yet improvement was not noted in Arab and Muslim societies. And in other countries, opinion of the U-S is less than it was a year ago. In this edition of Dateline Jaroslaw (YAR-oh-SLAV) Anders reports on a public debate about the roots of these anti-American feelings. With more, here's Pat Bodnar.

ANNCR: According to a report published this month (June 3) by the Pew Research Center, called "Views of a Changing World," the quick end of the U-S led war on Iraq modestly improved the image of America around the world.

But the war inflamed the Muslim world. In addition, it widened a growing rift between Americans and western Europeans.

Politicians and scholars have different views on whether those anti-American sentiments result from opposition to specific American policies or have deeper roots.

Some scholars think America projects its values in a way that is alienating other nations. They explored this theme at a recent debate in Washington at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

Minxin Pei, a Carnegie Endowment specialist in Asian and International studies, says the source of many recent problems for the United States is a tendency to underestimate both its own nationalism and the nationalism of other societies. Francis Fukuyama of the Johns Hopkins University, and.

TAPE: PEI, CUT 1

"Even though the U-S is a highly nationalistic society, especially compared with other advanced democracies, American foreign policy makers, and I think the U-S society at large, does not appreciate the power of nationalism, and often fail to appreciate the power of nationalism in other societies."

ANNCR: Americans believe their own nationalism is rather unique, and at least to them, Mr. Pei argues, it does not look like nationalism at all. That's because American nationalism, he says, is defined mainly by political ideals, a sense of collective achievement, and hope about the future.

In more traditional societies, he points out, nationalism rests on a sense of ethnic solidarity and is often fueled by historical grievances.

In Mr. Pei's view, Americans think that what is good for them must be good for the rest of the world. They often promote this nationalistic view, he notes, with selfishness and arrogance. And that, he says, carries a risk.

TAPE: PEI, CUT 2

"American nationalism tends to undermine American moral authority abroad, especially because American nationalism, if you purely look at the aspect of its values, is quite universalistic. The idea of the rule of law, and the idea of liberal democracy. But when American policy pursues a very narrow national interest agenda, then people in other countries will immediately spot the inconsistency and contradiction between professed American ideals and actual American policy, and that kind of inconsistency will make the U-S look as a whole quite hypocritical abroad."

ANNCR: Minxin Pei notes an irony in the Pew report. Anti-American feelings, the report says, are often expressed by people who share American values. So the problem for Americans, in his view, is not the values themselves, but the ways in which Americans try to impose them on the world.

Professor Francis Fukuyama of Johns Hopkins University agrees that many Americans believe in the universality of their political culture and their institutions.

TAPE: FUKUYAMA, CUT 3

"Americans, when they love their own, may think that it is not only our own, but potentially, a possession of everyone that comes to this country. And moreover, those institutions are transferable across national boundaries, and are potentially applicable to any other society."

ANNCR: Mr. Fukuyama admits that American foreign policy sometimes does not live up to the ideals held by the American people. This gap provokes loud accusations of American hypocrisy and dishonesty. But he asks whether a measure of hypocrisy is inevitable considering the unique place America occupies in today's world?

TAPE: FUKUYAMA, CUT 4

"It is the dominant superpower, it's responsible for providing security and a lot of other global public goods to the world community. Nobody else is going to do that if the United States doesn't. And it means, therefore, that it simply has to exercise power. And while exercising power, you can never consistently live up to a set of moral demands. And therefore these charges of hypocrisy, I think, are going to be almost inevitable."

ANNCR: Besides, says Francis Fukuyama, Americans are right to believe that their model of liberal democracy has universal appeal. In his view those who criticize America, usually reject its political and social values. They target the U-S, because at present, it is the bearer of social liberty, free trade, technology, globalization, and everything that comes with modern life.

Minxin Pei agrees but replies that America has failed to produce leadership on social issues seen by others as equally important.

TAPE: PEI, CUT 5

"The costs of accepting hegemony may be rising, while the amount of global goods provided by the U-S is falling. If you look at U-S leadership - or the lack thereof - in dealing with the problems in environmental protection, all kinds of issues, you would find it hard to believe this balance is in the appropriate place."

ANNCR: Ad Melkert, Dutch Executive Director at the World Bank, said that this lack of American support for issues that have a broad international consensus, like environmental treaties or global pacts like the International Criminal Court, are more objectionable to Europeans than American nationalism.

TAPE: MELKERT, CUT 6

"One of the core values, as you mentioned yourself, is the rule of law. And it is difficult to understand why the application of the rule of law should stop at the border of the United States. And at the same time in Europe, with the enlargement of the Europeans Union, with the building of the new European Union, the European Convention, with the Yugoslavia tribunal, you see efforts via the rule of law to organize the relatively chaotic situation of Europe still growing to the kind of statehood that the United States have already experienced for two centuries."

ANNCR: Francis Fukuyama replies that Americans are not opposed to international law. After all, he notes, the U-S helped to build the system of international organizations and treaties after World War II. Yet, Americans remain reluctant to surrender sovereign powers to international bodies.

TAPE: FUKUYAMA, CUT 7

"Americans are great believers in sovereignty, and believe that legitimacy in political life comes from a duly constituted people establishing constitutional government that is democratic, that is the fundamental source of legitimate action in the world. And all other forms of international organization are derivative of that, and can be handed up to an international organization, but do not exist on a higher level."

ANNCR: In Mr. Fukuyama's view, Europeans believe that the international community has the right to establish norms and principles for national governments.

Americans, on the other hand, tend to ask: "Who elected the United Nations?" They want their government to answer to them, rather than to an abstract "international community."

And this is how its should be, says Francis Fukuyama, because Americans can learn from their mistakes and use democracy to restrain their government, whenever international ventures bring undesirable and unpopular results.

But if Americans can ask, "Who elected the United Nations", others can ask, "Who elected the Americans?"

U-S dominance in world affairs, notes Minxin Pei, raises concerns about a perceived American ignorance of world affairs. This, he notes, could turn the country's military might into a very dangerous tool. For example, Pei points to polls showing that 50 percent of Americans believe that Saddam Hussein was responsible for the attacks of September 11.

TAPE: PEI, CUT 8

"In the international system where uni-polarity is a fact of life, where balance of power no longer operates, the only way American power can be restrained is domestic politics. An when you have a citizenry which is as poorly informed relative to its counterparts in other democracies, then you start wonder whether politicians, foreign policy makers will have the right policy."

ANNCR: (Begin opt/for time) Though Americans are often accused of being naïve and parochial in world affairs, John Sullivan of the Washington-based Center for International Private Enterprise, says during his travels abroad, he has encountered fantastic myths and misconceptions about America.

TAPE: SULLIVAN, CUT 9

"I am struck on my frequent trips to Europe during the last year by just to use four examples: the European attitudes on 9/11. And there I would cite two best-selling books in France, one of which claims that 9/11 was in fact a CIA plot. Second, a the very common thing that you hear is that the U-S foreign policy is being decided by Halliburton, Exxon Mobil, and 'George Bush's former company,' whatever that is."

ANNCR: John Sullivan says that Europeans call on America to sign the Kyoto environmental treaty, yet indicate in private they do not intend to fulfill all its requirements. And France and Germany, which had said that only the U-N Security Council could authorize war on Iraq, were more than willing to bypass the Security Council during the Balkan crisis.

Professor Francis Fukuyama agrees that hypocrisy is not an exclusively American vice.

TAPE: FUKUYAMA, CUT 10

"I think we as Americans owe it to ourselves to think through our own problems particularly intensely, but it is not obvious to me that they are particularly worse than those of other countries."(End OPT)

ANNCR: So what can America do to improve its image abroad? Minxine Pei suggests it should tone down its rhetoric. Professor Fukuyama believes Americans need not be shy about promoting their values, but should try to explain their policies and long-term strategic goals with more clarity and care.

Others have suggested a general overhaul of American public diplomacy. However, most analysts agree that intense scrutiny by others, disapproval, and even a measure of hostility and resentment are simply functions of being a superpower.

Americans may have to get used to being treated more critically than lesser players on the global scene.

This "Dateline" was written by Jaroslaw Anders. From Washington I'm Pat Bodnar.

MUSIC: [Mannheim Steamroller, "Heritage." CDJ-7653/Cut 7]