This computer file is the property of Steven Rachwal Design. Steven Rachwal Design maintains ownership of this computer file at all times, and only authorizes the use of this file to make film and printing plates one time. Any additional use of this file, whether for sales, alterations or copying is strictly prohibited without written permission and fair compensation to Steven Rachwal Design. ○ ○ ○ ○ SPRING 2003  Paradoxically the United States is sometimes more hated and disapproved of, even by its allies, since the end of the Cold War than it was during this period by open as well as covert partisans of communism. Contradictions of the Anti-American Obsession JEAN FRANÇOIS REVEL        , Neither Marx Nor Jesus. I  , R       S U   U S,         -        . I   , The Anti-American Obsession,     E  E B  F , R   -, - -A   P       F . T    -   F  NPQ  B W.  -Paradoxically the United States is sometimes more hated and disapproved of, even by its allies, since the end of the Cold War than it was during this period by open as well as covert partisans of communism. Long before the US, there have been empires and powers of international scope. However, there had never been one with planetary preponderance. Zbigniew Brzezinski, President Carter's National Security Advisor, underscores this fact in his book The Grand Chessboard. In order to deserve the title of world superpower, a country must be ranked first in four fields: economy, technology, military and culture. At the present time, the US is the only country -and the first in historythat fulfills all four conditions not merely on a continental level but on a planetary one. Since the revival of  and until the beginning of the recession in  the American economy has clearly been ahead, with its combination of growth, full employment and the absence of inflation. In technology it enjoys a quasi-monopoly with the spectacular development that it has been able to foster in the field of stateof-the-art communication tools. Militarily, it is the only power capable of intervening at any time in any part of the globe. Its cultural superiority, however, is more debatable. The question is whether you define the term culture in its narrow or large meaning. In terms of the former definition -the highest creative manifestations of culture in literature, painting, music or architecture -the American civilization is certainly brilliant but it is not the only one nor is it always the best. At this prestigious level its radiance cannot be compared to that of the civilizations of Ancient Greece, Rome or China. One could even say that the This computer file is the property of Steven Rachwal D...

No abstract

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org. This content downloaded from 128.235.251.160 on Mon, 30 Mar 2015 01:02:04 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions BOOK REVIEWS | 131 discussion (pp. 417-420), principally a defense of United States actions in Southeast Asia, while Israeli violence against the Palestinians is dismissed in one page as "determined counterterror" (p. 466). Indeed, so intent is the author on identifying terrorism with socialism that, in his view, the Irish Republican Army Provisional Wing consists of "left-Socialists" rather than religious or cultural nationalists (p. 380).Not surprisingly, the book ends on a sour, almost despairing note: since elimination of the causes of terrorism is impossible, Western nations must attempt to "control" it by dealing harshly with terrorists and their allies. Professor Parry is no friend of right-wing dictatorships, but to him the terrorist is public enemy number one. Why has there been so little terrorism, relatively speaking, in the United States? Is a new wave of small-group violence predictable here? One will not find the answers to such questions in this book which, like so many others on the same subject, substitutes denunciation for analysis. RICHARD LIBMAN-RUBENSTEIN Roosevelt UniversityThe Totalitarian Temptation by Jean-Franqois Revel. Garden City, N. Y., Doubleday and Co., 1977. 311 pp. $8.95.

No abstract

The extent of anti-Americanism in the years ahead will depend on whether the post-9/11 order ushered in by the Afghan war and the regime-changing invasion of Iraq is ultimately seen as legitimate. It must also be able to provide the kind of security and stability the collapsing system of the United Nations and the Atlantic Alliance did for the past five decades.