More catch up 092314

William Blum spoke on "American Exceptionalism and US Foreign Policy" at a teach-in on US foreign policy at the American University in Washington, DC, on September 6, 2014.  His talk is worth a look up but to long for a restatement here.  He points out the chasm between America's public perceptions of its foreign policies and world realities generating resistance to Americanization.  He doesn't actually condemn American policies; it is more of an indictment of the hypocrisy of government disinformation aimed at the American people.  Sampling his examples it is easier to understand why the United States has become a favored target of the international community, dissidents, radicals and disenfranchised terror. ###

Scholar and former Australian diplomat Kadira Pethiyagoda used WWI's anniversary to note some current parallels and present an argument for understanding cultural differences.  His similarities note that States are again pushing the boundaries of international law, acting unilaterally to control territory, and that new international players are in the wings with wealth and capabilities, hungry for their share.  He argues that today is a multipolarity society including Asia, South America and Africa.  WWI was an explosion of a single Euro-centric culture; the 21st century is already one of cultures in conflict.  Western foreign policy in the 20th century was based Game Theory's rational actors.  Simply put policies are based on how the policy makers themselves would react.  A multipolar world is one of multi-value choices that may appear irrational to western politicians but quite reasonable to regional policy makers.  Failure to adjust polices to cultural understandings will exasperate relations and may eclipse current realities.  Before America eclipsed England Winston Churchill noted that the Americans and British were a common people divided by a common language.   ###

In Europe cultural xenophobia is apparently again becoming a tool of rightist politics.  Immigrations into the once homogenous countries presents blame game opportunities for power grabs.  It is interesting that the much-diminished European Jewish populations are again the focus of hate politics. Yascha Mounk argues that this is the result of resentment against Jews, as reminders of European Christian complicity in the Holocaust. Muslim immigrants to Europe with a long history of Jewish tolerance (not to be confused with Israelis) appear to be more acceptant than native Christians.  Rightist are attempting to create conflict between Muslims and Jews to demonstrate the dangers posed by non-European values that are not compatible to European culture.  Unlike western cultures with long histories immigration and assimilation Europe remained free of multiculturalism.  With the post war colonial collapse many natives immigrated to the "home" countries and were followed by large masses seeking economic and political freedoms.  Faced with a cultural flood of strange foods, practices and dress the newcomers are shuffled off to new ghettos that they find difficult to leave.  In face of their strangeness and isolation most European do not accept that immigrants can ever integrate into their European culture.  This xenophobia provides fertile ground for politicians on the right to leverage their way to power.  In America the Irish, Italians and Poles initially faced similar experiences but their assimilation provided a much richer culture.  Failure to accept assimilation is the doorway to victimization and terror.  ###