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Anti-Americanism and Its Themes (Controversies between Europe and America)

[01.11.2004, František Šebej, FOREIGN POLICY AND NATIONAL SECURITY]

Europe gave birth to America, lost her, then married her and started arguing again. She then put into her cradle an amazing legacy of thought which in Europe is almost forgotten, even though Europe now supplies America with new generations of those with rebellious hearts, and courrage, who either run away from the violent history of European nations, or just try to escape the stifling provincial atmosphere. That is why Europe and America have a relationship like this. And that is exactly why also their arguments are so passionate.

The author of this article analyses the historical and ideological roots of anti-Americanism in European countries. According to the author the aggressive and irrational anti-Americanism is the most disconcerting and dangerous political and social phenomenon of contemporary post modern Europe. He describes dissimilar attitudes and disputes from the USA and European countries occuring on the international scene in the last few years. He mentions such events as the conflict in the former Yugoslavia, controversy regarding Israel and Palestine, the combat against terrorism, the Kyoto protocol concerning the reduction of greenhouse gasses emissions or the International Criminal Court.

The author illustrates the character of disputes between Europe and America by way of an analysis of the arguments regarding the nullification of the Antiballistic Missile Treaty (ABM).

Author is a foreign policy analyst, and reporter for the conservative weekly magazine Týždeň and co-worker of the Conservative Institute of M. R. Štefánik.

The article is a part of the publication USA, Europe and Slovakia issued by the Conservative Institute of M. R. Štefánik in 2004.

The full text is available here as an Adobe Acrobat PDF.