June 9, 2002

A mention of America creates all kinds of emotions all over the world. People love to hate the US — they have some personal experiences to justify the feeling — but it is also admired as a big power. Love and hate are intertwined with great expectations.

To understand the US, a simple, straightforward book can give a better account of American history than any intellectual interpretation. Jolyon P. Girard has written a concise book with major historical documents of 1776-1990 which have shaped the American past, present and future.

The foreword states that “understanding America demands grasping the contentious nature of its past and applying that understanding to current issues in politics, law, government, society and culture”.

The United States was born out of a revolt against the British Empire in 1776, which became known as the American revolution. It was the first republic established on the concept of sovereign people in secured borders. When the Spanish colonies in South America revolted, the United States established its hegemony with the Monroe Doctrine, and there was no turning back. Although President Monroe’s remarks were a minor aspect of his broad State of the Union message, the real significance of his doctrine emerged when US influence and power evolved in the last half of the 1800s.

Facing the European imperial powers of the time, the doctrine stated, “The citizens of the United States cherish sentiments the most friendly in favour of the liberty and happiness of their fellowmen on that part of the Atlantic. In the wars of the European powers in matters relating to themselves we have never taken any part, nor does it comport with our policy to do so. It is only when our rights are invaded or seriously menaced that we resent injuries or make preparation for our defence”.

It was the declaration that the American continent was under the protection of the United States that helped the US emerge as the supreme sovereign authority in the northern hemisphere, especially after the end of the civil war in 1865.

By 1900 the American conquest of Hawaii, the Philippines, Guam, and Puerto Rico led to the build up of the American empire. Gradually, the industrial revolution in the new hemisphere created a giant economy and the rest of the world looked towards the US for peace and prosperity. That is the paradox of the world beyond America: peace brought by an imperial power could also create freedom and prosperity at the expense of the sovereignty of the dominated people. Thomas Jefferson in 1801 expounded the doctrine that the great strength of the new nation resided in its democratic structure and the popular consensus on the “rightness” and the need for a republican constitution. It now appears that this “rightness” has been turned into “self-righteousness” and arrogance?

In order to build a nation, it is stated, the Americans wrestled with such issues as defining and defending freedom(s), determining America’s place in the world, waging war and making peace, receiving and assimilating new peoples, balancing church and state, forming a “more perfect union” and pursuing “happiness”.

The Americans developed a tradition of plebeian democracy, which was the opposite of the feudal system and the class-conscious racist European imperialism. Slavery was a capitalist institution brought in by the European transatlantic traders to become a dehumanized episode of the American experience, of which the scars still remain.

It was during the two world wars of the twentieth century that the United States became the main actor in world affairs and eventually emerged as the power with the strongest war machine which reached every corner of the globe. After the end of the cold war in 1992, Francis Fukuyama declared that the liberal democracy of the United States had triumphed and the highest stage of capitalism had dawned. The sovereignty of the European and Asian states was now underpinned by the American concept of security and prosperity.

The author complacently writes, “The American public freed of the tensions and dangers of the US-Soviet confrontation experienced a degree of euphoria and pride. Surely, the world would become a safer place, and America’s role in it could take on aspects of a Pax Americana, a protector of the new stability.” Some hoped for the possibility of a golden age of peace, cooperation, and prosperity under the shield of America’s singular strength. Others, however, warned that unilateral power breeds arrogance and misjudgment.

Today the US dominates NATO, NAFTA and other organizations of economic and political power. In the Middle East, the United States has become the focus for brokering peace. In Asia, China has become the main target of attention for the American foreign policy to balance the emerging force in the region. Africa has remained a paradox for American foreign policy as it cannot decide how to address the impoverished people of that continent. In South and Central Asia, the US role is now complex, with geostrategic and economic interests being the focal concerns. Thus the American world has become an enigma for the smaller nations, still struggling for sovereignty in the postcolonial era. How to balance its sovereignty and security with the superpower’s presence has become a dilemma for each and every region under the shadow of America. Although the author talks of the American foreign policy as defined within the parameters of the “national interest” of the United States, the challenge for other nations has been to protect their own sovereign interests. This need to maintain a fine balance between the two and thus forge a cordial relationship is the major need of the twenty-first century.

America and the world
By Jolyon P. Girard
Greenwood Press
ISBN 0-313-31292-3
269pp. £46.95

Please Visit our Sponsor (Ads open in separate window)