Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: This paper undertakes an early exploratory study into the nature of anti-Americanism, especially in the context of growing debates in the United States and abroad about the role of America in the world after 9/11 and the Iraq War. In doing so, this paper deals with three main issues: The first section argues that there has always been a background debate about Americanism, i.e. the real or perceived ideal-type values and norms attached to the American model, and that this debate has now become one of the defining fault lines in global politics today. The second section argues that, although anti-Americanism has become a major public discourse, especially in Europe, there is only very little academic research on it. By surveying the existing literature, mostly in policy-orientated current affairs journals, it becomes clear that the lack of theoretically grounded societal approaches to the study of anti-Americanism greatly limits the prospect of defining or explaining it. The third section, therefore, argues that social deviance theory in the tradition of Emile Durkheim, and in particular Stanley Cohen’s concept of moral panics, represents a useful tool to arrive at a preliminary definition of anti-Americanism and to explain a particular paradox, namely why Europeans are anti-American despite sharing many American core values. The concluding section, finally, presents a number of areas where further research is needed and maps out promising theoretical avenues in the study of anti-Americanism.