Anti-American causes, fixes examined

Three experts in panel discussion at Princeton University.

By: David Campbell
   Three panelists shared their thoughts on the causes of — and remedies to — anti-Americanism in Europe during a talk Tuesday at Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs.
   The speakers were Brian E. Carlson, former U.S. ambassador to Latvia; Steven J. Simmons, a member of the Broadcasting Board of Governors that supervises U.S. government-supported international broadcasting like Voice of America; and Princeton Professor Stanley N. Katz, director of Princeton’s Center for Arts and Cultural Policy Studies and president emeritus of the American Council of Learned Societies.
   Mr. Simmons said broadcasts like Voice of America seek to correct misperceptions about Americans around the world and that the government-sponsored programming presents differing views of the news, unlike in some countries without press freedoms. He said such broadcasts are fair and balanced and are not propaganda.
   "We can’t talk down, because we would immediately lose our credibility and our audience," he said.
   Professor Katz urged greater "cultural diplomacy" by the United States, agreeing that Americans need to make their case abroad, but saying efforts also must be made to understand the countries they’re communicating with. He said student-exchange programs need to be restored and strengthened. He said U.S. policies following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks have promoted strong reactions abroad — not all of them positive.
   "People don’t necessarily love you when you push other people around," he said.
   Mr. Carlson said a distinction must be made between those who are against what the United States does "and those who are just against us."
   He said anti-Americanism is not new, citing examples of it cropping up in the early day of American independence and during World War II. During the war, he said, the old jibe by Europeans about American soldiers went that they were "over-paid, over-sexed — and over here."
   He suggested the United States’ success as a nation plays large in criticism abroad. He said opposition can swing between accusations of both isolationism and meddling in foreign affairs. He said Eastern European countries like Latvia tend to be pro-America, saying the United States is now "reaping the harvest" of its support for such countries against the Soviets during the Cold War.
   "Nevertheless, there is anti-Americanism in much of Europe," Mr. Carlson said.
   He cited several common themes in the European press, such as the notion that the United States is a society ruled by money and ethically bankrupt — that "it is that savage power of capitalism," he said.
   Another is that poverty is rife in America, that there is no national health program and no "social solidarity." Another is that the United States is a violent country where children bring guns to schools and police are "armed to the teeth" against violent crime. Still another is that Americans are overly religious, that they go to church all the time and are beholden to television evangelists — "that we wear our religion like our patriotism on pins on our lapels," he said. Still another is that America is its popular culture as reflected in popular novels and Hollywood movies and TV shows like "Baywatch."
   Some of the causes of anti-Americanism in Europe include socialist intellectual elitists, he suggested, that view America and its power as "a symbol for everything they’re against." He also said Europeans feel better about themselves when they put Americans down. As an example, he said it’s impossible to get a Norwegian to admit Americans are intelligent — even though, he claimed, 70 percent of Nobel Prize winners have been Americans.
   And why? "Because we are the biggest," he said. As the U.S. economy goes, so go economies around the world, he said. If rap music or a product like the iPod catch on in America, their popularity sweeps around the world.
   "Today, you can hear Latvian rap, you can hear German rap," he said.
   Mr. Carlson said that anti-American sentiment ebbs and flows, and said that today, with events like the Orange Revolution in Ukraine and anti-Syrian demonstrations in Beirut, the pendulum is "lightly" swinging in the United States’ favor. He said, though, "Sometimes we do, as Americans, want to change the world, and we can sometimes be bull-headed about it." He said U.S. foreign policy has consistently cast its argument between "freedom and non-freedom — and that is very bold."
   Mr. Carlson offered several ways the United States can combat anti-American sentiments in Europe. He said Americans must be careful to refrain from nationalist hubris and should not talk down to Europeans — who, he indicated, are sensitive to U.S. power. He said the United States should respect its allies.
   "We need their legitimacy and we need their help," he said. "We cannot afford to go it alone."
   He recommended restoring educational exchange programs, and he said the nation needs more people who speak foreign languages. "We need people who are willing to go out and communicate," he said.