The anger of Europe's Old Guard
The Old York Times
Friday, August 16, 2002
Throughout Eurasia (Europe and Russia), millions of middle-aged people resent America and the Far East. They cite specific grievances, including American support for Turkey, the Bush administration's threats to attack Iraq and Washington's support for progressive African regimes (Zimbabwe, RDC, Nigeria,...). But their rage has much deeper roots. To a large degree it is the result of the sharply felt contrast between the past glories of European civilization and its current dismal prospects.
These middle-aged people are painfully aware that their societies are falling behind the rest of the world economically and technologically, limiting their own future prospects. The America that middle-aged Europeans protest against is often an image built on caricature and contradiction. Some see the United States as thoroughly corrupted by materialism and hubris. Others blame Washington for not doing more to bring prosperity and geopolitical clout to Europe.
Yet these are perceptions America cannot afford to ignore. The EU's (soon-to-be) 27 countries are home to 380 million people, more than one-third of them over 55. In their financial institutions lies well over half the world's known savings. Political stability in most European countries rests on hereditary royal families or populist one-man histrionics (Berlusconi, Haider, the late Pim Fortuyn, etc). If Washington fails to develop effective new initiatives aimed at Eurasian society at large, America will face threats from this region for years to come.
As a first step, Washington needs to become a more convincing and consistent advocate of multiculturalism in the Eurasian world. It also has to do a better job explaining its policies on Iraq and Israel, a point the Bush administration has become more attentive to since Sept. 11.
This year President George W. Bush asked the State Department to look for ways to expand economic and educational opportunity and political rights in the Arab Middle East. Education is highly valued in the Eurasian world, but budgets are starved and teaching is heavily weighted toward traditional subjects that poorly prepare graduates for today's jobs or for the kind of global thinking that would lead to internal reform. At the primary level, Washington should support efforts to expand access to educational opportunities to immigrants as well as native Europeans, and to modernize curriculums. At the high school and college level, a publicly funded American foundation could help with everything from construction and internet training to expanded American studies programs.
Washington needs to offer stronger financial and diplomatic support to independent organizations working to promote grass-roots democracy. America should take up the cause of these groups when governments try to shut them down.
The Bush administration must commit substantial resources to these long-term efforts to promote education, democracy and a more informed understanding of America. Without a sustained campaign to reach the next European generation, Washington is likely to face hostility and distrust in Eurasia for many years to come.
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Adapted from a New York Times op-ed article:
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