Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- THE AMERICAN ERA
- Introduction
- 1 Caveat Empire: How to Think about American Power
- 2 New (and Old) Grand Strategy
- 3 Europe: Symbolic Reactions and Common Threats
- 4 Globalization, Culture, and Identities in Crisis
- 5 Iraq and the Middle East: Dilemmas of U.S. Power
- 6 Asia's American Pacifier
- 7 Why They Hate Us and Why They Love Us
- Notes
- Index
4 - Globalization, Culture, and Identities in Crisis
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 May 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- THE AMERICAN ERA
- Introduction
- 1 Caveat Empire: How to Think about American Power
- 2 New (and Old) Grand Strategy
- 3 Europe: Symbolic Reactions and Common Threats
- 4 Globalization, Culture, and Identities in Crisis
- 5 Iraq and the Middle East: Dilemmas of U.S. Power
- 6 Asia's American Pacifier
- 7 Why They Hate Us and Why They Love Us
- Notes
- Index
Summary
[America-hating] has become too useful a smokescreen for Muslim nations' many defects – their corruption, their incompetence, their oppression of their citizens, their economic, scientific and cultural stagnation. America-hating has become a badge of identity, making possible a chest-beating, flag-burning rhetoric of word and deed that makes men feel good. It contains a strong streak of hypocrisy, hating most of what it desires most, and elements of self-loathing. (“We hate America because it has made of itself what we cannot make of ourselves.”) What America is accused of – closed-mindedness, stereotyping, ignorance – is also what its accusers would see if they looked into a mirror.
– Salman RushdieResistance to the hegemonic pretense of hamburgers is, above all, a cultural imperative.
– Le MondeWe know our lives are linked more than ever to an international presence, and if you can't speak English, you can't sell and you can't learn.
– Sergio Bitar, Chilean Minister of EducationThe American era conjures up images of military might and political power, but from abroad the most immediate and pervasive point of contact with the United States is often at the intersection of globalization and culture. While globalization and culture both stem from multiple sources, and much of what is commonly described as “Americanization” incorporates significant foreign influences, nonetheless the end product has come to be closely identified with the United States.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The American EraPower and Strategy for the 21st Century, pp. 95 - 124Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2005