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home > by publication type > academic modules > Academic Module: Friendly Fire: Losing Friends and Making Enemies in the Anti-American Century
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March 2006
| Author: | Julia E. Sweig, Nelson and David Rockefeller Senior Fellow for Latin America Studies and Director for Latin America Studies |
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In 1945, the United States was the founding impulse behind the cornerstones of the international community: the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and the United Nations. At that time, American ideals were perceived to coincide with American actions, intended to expand social, legal, and economic protections around the world. Sixty years later, “Anti-America” has spread into a global phenomenon, crossing borders, classes, ideologies, religions, and generations.
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March 2006
| Author: | Julia E. Sweig, Nelson and David Rockefeller Senior Fellow for Latin America Studies and Director for Latin America Studies |
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America quietly sowed the seeds of its own decline in the eyes of the world in its own backyard. In Latin America, 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?
by Julia E. Sweig, Nelson and David Rockefeller Senior Fellow for Latin America Studies and Director for Latin America Studies, Council on Foreign Relations
How could one president and one war so profoundly mobilize global opinion against the United States? Friendly Fire wrestles with how it has been possible in just five years for the United States to have so dramatically scuttled its international credibility and image, especially among America’s traditional friends and allies. Yes, Iraq, false intelligence, torture, unilateralism, and even the personality of President George W. Bush had the effect of stripping back the Band-Aid that had covered long-accumulated and latent wounds and resentments of power.
But what Sweig describes as the rise of “Anti-America” today is a problem that runs deeper than just one presidency. What are the historical dynamics that help explain today’s anti-U.S. backlash? Is it “us” or is it “them”? How will today’s anti-American environment affect the United States’ ability to work with the international community to address the global issues of the day? Should there be limits to how American power is used? What can the United States do to deal with the rise of “Anti-America”? Sweig examines the origins of “Anti-America” over the last half century, and argues that the sources of anti-Americanism around the world today go far beyond George W. Bush’s foreign policy. And she offers policy prescriptions to help prevent “Anti-America” from becoming a debilitating feature of international politics.
Themes
One of the main arguments of this book is that Latin America was a testing ground for U.S. foreign policy of unilateral intervention, and what the author calls “preemptive Americanism.”
Discussion Questions
Discussion Questions
This book argues that the sources of anti-Americanism around the world today go far beyond George W. Bush’s foreign policy.
Discussion Questions
Explain the main structural and historic factors that Sweig argues contribute to anti-Americanism today. Is this argument convincing? Which factors do you believe are more significant and why?
What to do about anti-Americanism?
March 27, 2006
Julia E. Sweig, Nelson and David Rockefeller Senior Fellow for Latin America Studies and Director for Latin America Studies interviewed by Bernard Gwertzman, Consulting Editor
Julia Sweig, Council on Foreign Relations Senior Fellow for Latin American Studies, is author of a new book on what she calls "the Anti-American Century." She says there are many ways the United States can begin to turn around the strong anti-American sentiment sweeping the world. Forcing high-level officials like Secretary of Defense Donald M. Rumsfeld to resign because of detainee abuses is one of them. Reviving Cold War-era cultural diplomacy programs is another.
March 17, 2006
| Author: | Alexandra Silver |
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The U.S. government has several channels for promoting democracy, but a plethora of independent U.S. organizations with that same mandate also exist, with varying degrees of financial dependency on the government.
March 17, 2006
| Author: |
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A row over landing rights threatens to further strain U.S. relations with Venezuela. The dispute comes at a time when diplomacy with South America is already fraught with tension.
March 17, 2006
The U.S. State Department, linking development to national security, is taking steps to improve coordination of the country’s fragmented foreign assistance programs. The moves hark back to the foreign aid goals of the Marshall Plan, but are seen by many as too limited.
updated: March 15
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Washington has waged a difficult battle to reform the UN’s chief rights body while facing challenges to its role as rights watchdog.
March 10, 2006
Secretary Rice and U.S. public diplomacy chief Karen Hughes travel to South America this week for the inauguration of Chile's first woman president, Michelle Bachelet. The trip could signal a new focus on South America, at a time when a growing number of leftist governments in the region pose questions for U.S. policies there.
March 9, 2006
Julia E. Sweig, Nelson and David Rockefeller Senior Fellow for Latin America Studies and Director for Latin America Studies interviewed by Mary Crane, Editorial Coordinator
As Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Undersecretary of State for Public Diplomacy Karen Hughes prepare for their trip to South America, CFR Senior Fellow Julia Sweig says the United States must reevaluate its policies in South America. If Washington takes a broader view of the challenges South America faces, real progress could be made.
March 3, 2006
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UN negotiators have produced a proposal for revamping the UN's top human rights body. But U.S. opposition to the proposal, which it says will not prevent repressive states from joining, could slow the UN rights reform process.
February 17, 2006
Two months after President Bush signed into law a ban on torture, a new UN report accuses the United States of torturing detainees at Guantanamo Bay and more images of abuse at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison are emerging. The issue of prisoner abuse continues to divide America, while alienating a number of U.S. allies.
December 6, 2005
| Author: | Mary Crane, Editorial Coordinator |
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October 27, 2005
Walter Russell Mead, Henry A. Kissinger Senior Fellow for U.S. Foreign Policy interviewed by Bernard Gwertzman, Consulting Editor
October 5, 2005
| Interview by: | Mary Crane, Editorial Coordinator |
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September 26, 2005
| Author: | Walter Russell Mead, Henry A. Kissinger Senior Fellow for U.S. Foreign Policy |
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August 1, 2005
The term global governance does not capture a world where rules are changing, power is decentralizing, and international institutions are challenged to keep pace. The world is neither governed, nor governable in the sense of a “world government;” nor is a world government desired or desirable for the United States or most nations. Yet there are rules—some formal, some informal—and they have an important impact on states and on people’s daily lives.
July 1, 2005
Social and cultural matters that were once considered largely domestic concerns increasingly have moved onto the international agenda. Religion, children’s rights, gender issues, education, drug- and sex-trafficking: these and other issues can have an impact far beyond national borders.
July 2005
Leaders of the nations of the Western Hemisphere are working to manage regional democratization, problems associated with the challenges of globalization, and new and longstanding security threats. Political and economic shocks—Argentina’s financial crisis, Venezuela’s polarization, Haiti’s unrest, upheaval in the Andean region—have shaken democratic consolidation, tested democratic institutions, and weakened public faith in both democracy and liberalizing economic reforms. The United States and Canada continue to try to resolve trade disputes and to repair relations damaged by the war in Iraq. Mexico has largely recovered from its 1994 financial crisis, but crime and official corruption remain obstacles to further political and economic development.
May 24, 2005
Richard N. Haass, President, Council on Foreign Relations interviewed by Bernard Gwertzman, Consulting Editor
March 29, 2005
Julia E. Sweig, Nelson and David Rockefeller Senior Fellow for Latin America Studies and Director for Latin America Studies interviewed by Bernard Gwertzman, Consulting Editor
March 22, 2005
| Interview by: | Bernard Gwertzman, Consulting Editor |
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November/December 2005
| Author: | Alexander Cooley |
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Summary
As the Pentagon prepares to redeploy U.S. forces around the world, it should review its practice of setting up bases in nondemocratic states. Although defense officials claim that having U.S. footholds in repressive countries offers important strategic advantages, the practice rarely helps promote liberalization in host states and sometimes even endangers U.S. security.
September/October 2005
| Author: | Stephen M. Walt |
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Summary
U.S. policymakers debate how to wield American power; foreigners debate how to deal with it. Some make their peace with Washington and try to manipulate it; others try to oppose and undercut U.S. interests. The challenge for the United States is how to turn its material dominance into legitimate authority.
January/February 2005
| Author: | William Drozdiak, President, American Council on Germany |
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Summary
November/December
| Authors: | David C. Hendrickson Robert W. Tucker |
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Summary
November 17, 2005
A quadrennial poll on foreign policy issues finds both the public and U.S. opinion leaders taking a decidedly cautious view of America’s place in the world, reflecting concerns about the war abroad and growing problems at home.
August 2005
| Authors: | James M. Lindsay, Director, Robert S. Strauss Center, University of Texas Ivo H. Daalder |
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America Unbound argues that President Bush has redefined how America engages the world, shedding the constraints that friends, allies, and international institutions have traditionally imposed on its freedom, insisting that an America unbound is a more secure America.
May 2005
| Authors: | Craig Charney, President, Charney Research Nicole Yakatan |
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Council Special Report No. 7
The United States can improve its image in the Muslim world. Focus group research in three key Islamic countries--Egypt, Morocco, and Indonesia--shows that the widely held view that nothing can be done about the spread of negative attitudes toward the United States among Muslims in the Middle East and Asia is incorrect. The key to a new dialogue with the Muslim world is a humbler American perspective, based on respectful partnership and agreeing to disagree when necessary.
January 2004
The United States spends approximately $700 million per year in the Andean region, but this Commission report concludes that current U.S. policy—focused narrowly on “drugs and thugs” in the Andes—cannot achieve U.S. regional goals of democracy, prosperity, and security. Andes 2020 offers bold new recommendations to recalibrate U.S. policy to better meet its objectives.
March 14, 2006
| Speaker: | Jeffrey D. Sachs, Director, Earth Institute, Columbia University |
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| Presider: | Elizabeth H. Becker, German Marshall Fellow, Author and Journalist |
Jeffrey D. Sachs, director of The Earth Institute at Columbia University, discusses progress toward global poverty reduction, foreign aid challenges, and decisions faced by the United States.
March 7, 2006
| Speaker: | Michael Mandelbaum, Christian A. Herter Professor of American Foreign Policy, Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University; author, "The Case for Goliath: How America Acts as the World’s Government in the 21st Century" |
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| Presider: | Leslie H. Gelb, President Emeritus, Council on Foreign Relations |
Professor Michael Mandelbaum discusses his book, The Case for Goliath, in which he explains how the United States uses its enormous power to provide the world with the services of a government. The U.S. plays this role with the tacit consent of many of its critics, he says.
February 6, 2006
| Speakers: | Chris Patten, Chancellor, Universities of Oxford and Newcastle; former European commissioner for external relations and author, Cousins and Strangers: America, Britain, and Europe in a New Century Rockwell Schnabel, Chairman and co-founder, Trident Capital; former U.S. ambassador to the European Union and author, The Next Superpower? The Rise of Europe and Its Challenge to the United States |
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| Presider: | Richard R. Burt, Chairman, Diligence, Inc. |
Europe experts Chris Patten and Rockwell Schnabel discuss the current challenges facing Europe, including a growing Muslim community, negotiations with Iran, and the European Union’s role in global affairs.
October 26, 2005
| Speakers: | Robert W. Merry, President and publisher, Congressional Quarterly, Inc.; author, Sands of Empire: Missionary Zeal, American Foreign Policy, and the Hazards of Global Ambition Nancy E. Soderberg, Vice president for multilateral affairs, International Crisis Group; author, The Superpower Myth: The Use and Misuse of American Might Stephen M. Walt, Robert and Renee Belfer professor of international affairs, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University; author, Taming American Power: The Global Response to U.S. Primacy |
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| Presider: | Paul Kennedy, Director, International Security Studies; Dilworth professor of history, Yale University |
January 8, 2004
| Speakers: | Julia E. Sweig, senior fellow, Council on Foreign Relations; Deputy Director, Latin America Studies Daniel William Christman, commission chair John G. Heimann, Warburg Pincus; Co-Chair, Andes 2020 Commission |
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January 7, 2004
| Speakers: | Julia E. Sweig, Senior Fellow, Deputy Director, Latin America Studies, Council on Foreign Relations John G. Heimann, Co-chair of an independent commission, Andes 2020: A New Strategy for the Challenges of Colombia and the Region |
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March 13, 2006
| Speaker: | Jane Harman, Member, U.S. House of Representatives (D-CA); Ranking Member, House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence; and Member, House Homeland Security Committee |
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| Presider: | Richard M. Cohen, Columnist, The Washington Post |
Watch Congresswoman Jane Harman (D-CA) discuss the need for establishing a fair and clear legal framework so that all branches of government work together through bipartisanship in fighting terrorism and apprehending suspected terrorists.
October 26, 2005
| Speakers: | Robert W. Merry, President and publisher, Congressional Quarterly, Inc.; author, Sands of Empire: Missionary Zeal, American Foreign Policy, and the Hazards of Global Ambition Nancy E. Soderberg, Vice president for multilateral affairs, International Crisis Group; author, The Superpower Myth: The Use and Misuse of American Might Stephen M. Walt, Robert and Renee Belfer professor of international affairs, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University; author, Taming American Power: The Global Response to U.S. Primacy |
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| Presider: | Paul Kennedy, Director, International Security Studies; Dilworth professor of history, Yale University |
February 6, 2006
| Speakers: | Chris Patten, Chancellor, Universities of Oxford and Newcastle; former European Commissioner for External Relations; Author, Cousins and Strangers: America, Britain, and Europe in a New Century Rockwell Schnabel, Chairman and Co-founder, Trident Capital; former U.S. Ambassador to the European Union; Author, The Next Superpower? The Rise of Europe and Its Challenge to the United States |
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| Presider: | Richard R. Burt, Chairman, Diligence, Inc. |
May 13, 2005
| Speaker: | Jose Barroso, President, European Commission |
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| Presider: | Richard C. Holbrooke, Vice Chairman, Perseus LLC |
April 22, 2005
| Speakers: | Sander Levin, Member, U.S. House of Representatives (D-MI) Jim Kolbe, Member, U.S.House of Representative (R-AZ) |
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| Presider: | Julia E. Sweig, Senior Fellow, Latin America Program, Council on Foreign Relations |
March 14, 2006
Bernard-Henri Lévy dukes it out with Francis Fukuyama over American virtues and vices, neoconservatives, religion, the future of American muscular internationalism, and the role of intellectuals in a free society.
February 1, 2006
| Author: | Jeffrey Kopstein |
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The Washington Quarterly's Jeffrey Kopstein argues that, given the shifting rationales for the war in Iraq emanating from the White House, it would be understandable if European leaders and the broader European public remained highly suspicious of democracy promotion.
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In Regional Monetary Integration, Peter B. Kenen poses an important question: Should various country groups follow the lead of the European Monetary Union and form similar full-fledged monetary unions?
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