At a policy discussion organized by the Foreign Policy magazine and Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at the Princeton Club last night, Robert Keohane, Peter Katzenstein, both co-editors of the forthcoming book, Anti-Americanisms in World Politics, dissected the fundamentals of Anti-Americanisms; and Keith Reinhard of DDB Worldwide, Director of Business for Diplomatic Action, an NGO based in San Francisco, offered practical solutions by bringing in the business perspective.
All three panelists agreed that there are different strands of anti-Americanisms. Thus, it is important to look at the issue in plurality. According to Koehane and Katzenstein, the understanding of anti-Americanisms should be distinguished into opinion and bias. Opinions change according to a temporal perception of what the U.S. does, such as its foreign policy, culture, attitude towards higher education and consumerism. Despite the dislike, there are still millions of people who want to get a U.S. visa. On the other hand, bias is a deep-seated distrust of what the U.S. is, almost in the form of racial predisposition, which is much more difficult to uproot. Katzenstein suggested that the reason for this dichotomy stems from the diverse character of the American society. For example, America exports Protestantism and pornography.
Reinhard applied the business model in understanding the issue. According to Reinhard, anti-Americanisms is analogous to a brand in crisis, and it loses the benefit of the doubt. It almost becomes politically correct to dump on the U.S. in most parts of the world. He suggested a composite solution to the issue which has an acronym STARS (utilizing an acronym is in and of itself very American. I do not quite understand why acronyms are so indispensable. The number of acronyms my study group and I tried to learn and make up in law school is astronomical. Who can forget “IRAC”?!): Sensitize key American constituents, Transform personality of the American people, Amplify things people like about the American people, Reach out to the Middle East and Germany, Serve as a connection between the private sector and the state government.
To renew a positive image for America, the government must partner with the business sector to convey a harmonized message to the world, that America listens, helps, and works as a team player. At the same time, it is necessary to educate Americans on the world they live in. According to the 2006 National Geographic – Roper survey, among 18- to 24-year-old Americans given maps, half of them cannot find New York on a map and 6 in 10 young Americans don't speak a foreign language fluently.
At this point, generally speaking the French have a deeply institutionalized dislike of the Americans, and China loathes America’s hegemonism. British intelligentsia Margaret Drabble wrote the following in her book Hating America: A History:
I detest Disneyfication, I detest Coca-Cola, I detest burgers, I detest sentimental and violent Hollywood movies that tell lies about history. I detest American imperialism, American infantilism, and American triumphalism about victories it didn’t even win.
America should not be out there to please the world, but it is important to recognize that the world it wants to globalise also needs to see America being globalised, too.