Anti-Americanism is nothing new, but — Julia E. Sweig contends in her new book, Friendly Fire: Losing Friends and Making Enemies in the Anti-American Century — it has taken on a new and disturbing coloration in recent years. The War on Terror, the invasion of Iraq, our perceived unilateralism, Abu Ghraib, and Gitmo have all played into the strengthening of anti-American sentiment throughout the world. And this new form of anti-Americanism ends up being enraged not just at our foreign policy but even at our domestic character: “What we do and who we are at home are increasingly on display for the world to see and judge, to emulate or reject.”

Sweig warns that while anti-Americanism has “bubbled beneath the surface of international relations for decades,” we need to pay attention to the fact that the animosity is now being voiced by new kinds of critics. It is not just the usual suspects — Iran, Cuba, etc. — who are unabashedly anti-American; long-established U.S. allies–formerly pro-American people like the Germans, Turks, British, and South Koreans — have become vociferous in their contempt for U.S. actions and policies.

Sweig turns the conventional view of anti-Americanism on its head. In the past, countries that had distaste for everything American were seen by Americans as compensating for “their own shortcomings. . . . The ‘blame America’ industry was understood . . . as a cynical dodge by those abroad unwilling or incapable of taking responsibility for their own failures.” The new anti-Americanism, she writes, is being understood even here in America as reflecting specific policy choices made by the U.S. after 9/11 and during the Iraq war: “By 2003, anti-America was no longer ‘their’ creation — it was ours as well.” To what extent this assessment of our policies is just can and will be debated; that it is prevalent is undeniable.

Sweig, a senior fellow and director of Latin American studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, believes there is a precedent in Latin America for this new strain of anti-Americanism. The seeds of Latin anti-Americanism were planted long ago, when the U.S. would promote regime changes that weren’t necessarily improvements. Latin America, she explains, served “as a laboratory for U.S. power and policies”–so much so that between 1900 and 1921 there were 21 U.S. interventions in the region. “It was Latin America that registered the most direct and consistent experience with the good, the bad, and the ugly of U.S. power, making the region the cradle of Third World anti-Americanism long before radical Islamic terrorist groups would make their wrath felt.” Friendly Fire can itself, at times, enrage the reader. Analyzing example after example of how the Iraq war has pulverized Western opinion against the U.S., one cannot help but feel a tinge of betrayal. The American people have, after all, sacrificed blood and treasure for the safety and well-being of many of these countries in which anti-Americanism now flourishes.

But we do need to accept the phenomenon as a given, and face it realistically. Sweig suggests that the U.S. needs to view itself from an outside perspective, and makes the entirely valid point that diplomacy is very important in fostering a certain level of cooperation. But she also correctly points out that it takes both sides to achieve this, and that it isn’t just the U.S. that needs to adjust. The U.S. should work to gain back some international support — but our traditional allies also need to make a more serious effort to understand our policies and the spirit in which we have crafted them. As long as we remain a superpower, there will always be some level of anti-Americanism in the world; but we can hope to manage both its scope and its level of virulence through concerted and intelligent action on the part of ourselves and our allies.

— Erin Carden is assistant to the editor at National Review. She’s starting graduate work at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies in the fall.

<em>Friendly Fire</em>, by Julia E. Sweig

(PublicAffairs, 272 pages, $25)

http://www.nationalreview.com/redirect/amazon.p?j=1586483005

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