|
|
|
|
BOOK
REVIEW
The world through Democratic
eyes
The Choice: Global
Domination or Global Leadership by
Zbigniew Brzezinski
Reviewed by
Dmitry Shlapentokh
One hardly need
introduce the author of the book under review:
Zbigniew Brzezinski, national security adviser
under US president  Jimmy Carter and a
prolific and extremely influential author who has
enjoyed worldwide fame.
The reader of this
short book can surely find many sound observations
with which one can hardly argue. No one can deny,
for example, that the United States is a leading
global power and that one of the greatest dangers
of the present international situation is fear of
global disorder, which, among many other
calamities, could lead to the spread of weapons of
mass destruction. But Brzezinski's explanation of
the problems and the remedies he proposes are
hardly workable and, in fact, naive. Still, they
are worth analyzing because they provide a glimpse
of the foreign-policy program of the US Democratic
Party.
Brzezinski believes that global
disorder can be prevented if the US protects its
global predominance, and that this can be done if
the country maintains close ties with the European
democracies, which in his view are its natural
allies. And it is here that everything has gone
awry in recent years. The major reason is that the
US started to betray its democratic tradition, and
it is common democratic values that for
generations have been the glue that cemented the
relationship between Americans and Europeans. This
high moral caliber of US political institutions
made it the magnet for all of humanity and ensured
its geopolitical leadership.
Consequently,
it is the departure from this democratic tradition
that has constituted the major danger for the US,
which, Brzezinski says, has lost its moral
authority, antagonized Europeans, and isolated
itself as a country that relies on military force
with no moral authority. It is this that has
prevented the maintenance of America's benign
global domination. It is this that could push the
world community to global chaos from which all,
including the US, would suffer.
Brzezinski
points to several trends in the Bush
administration's policy, especially the rise in
the power of the president, who made the critical
decision to invade Iraq after talking with only a
few close advisers and without any real
consultation with Congress. Subsequently, personal
liberties have been abrogated, especially for
non-citizens. Brzezinski implies that this policy,
if developed, could not only deform US democracy
but lead to a sort of new Caesarism.
This
dangerous internal policy, Brzezinski points out,
has led to a dangerous imperial policy. For
example, the views of European allies were ignored
and the decision to attack Iraq was made on flimsy
evidence and in clear violation of international
law. And this, Brzezinski warns, is the road to
trouble. Radical changes will have to be
implemented if the United States wishes to
continue to be "the city on the hill" admired for
its democratic values, not the "besieged castle"
hated by everyone. Continuation of present policy
would lead to disaster for both the US and the
rest of the world.
While most of
Brzezinski's thesis is sound, albeit perhaps in
places a little trivial, his solutions to the
problems often look rather naive. The clearest
example, at least the example from which one could
start, is Brzezinski's ranting against President
George W Bush's betrayal/corruption of the major
principles of US internal and foreign policy. This
could well be compared with the view of numerous
Western leftists and liberals that the Soviet
regime "betrayed" the "true" nature of
socialism/Marxism. They argued that Marxism
promised the rule of the workers and the spread of
grassroots democracy and fraternal relationships.
Instead of following this fine model of "real"
Marxism, the Soviet Union created a repressive
regime that engaged in spasmodic terror. In the
realm of foreign policy, the regime expanded the
Soviet/Russian empire under the guise of spreading
"communism" and "liberation of the people from
capitalist oppression".
Finally, the
Soviet leaders sent tanks to friendly, socialist
Czechoslovakia, where liberal-minded communists -
so similar to Western leftists - tried to create
"socialism with a human face". This "wholesome"
endeavor was stopped by brute force and done with
absolute disregard of international law.
Horrified by "real" rather than imaginary
socialism, the leftist/liberal intellectuals
warned that this behavior would lead the Union of
Soviet Socialist Republics to disaster, and they
proposed returning to "true" benign Marxism and
thus save "the first country of the workers and
peasants" and humanity.
If such an
explanation had been provided to Brzezinski in his
capacity of US national security adviser, he would
have dismissed it as utterly naive and pointed out
that all this negative process was organically
inherent in the system. Other observers might add
that, in fact, some aspects of Soviet foreign
policy can be found in all big states.
If
Brzezinski were to analyze US foreign/domestic
policy in the context of pragmatic geopolitics, he
would find that there was no "betrayal" of
principles but simply pragmatic interests that
have guided the foreign policy of any state since
the dawn of history. The capitalist/democratic
West is no exception.
One might remember
that democratic America and democratic Britain
were once allies of "Uncle Joe" Stalin and that
post-World War II democratic America befriended
Mao Zedong because of the geopolitical threat
posed by t the USSR. This threat, not democratic
values, was the glue that stuck Europe to the US.
As soon as the threat from the East weakened, or
to be precise, ceased to exist, the alliance
started to crumble. Moreover, united Europe has
become more and more a geopolitical competitor of
the US.
To explain the conflict between
the US and Europe as a result of misunderstanding
and misinterpretation of values looks strangely
naive from a person who had served as US national
security adviser. No less so is his explanation
for America's dominant position. Brzezinski makes
only a brief mention of the economic and related
military might of the US, emphasizing instead the
appeal of America's cultural values, which he sees
as the foundation of the country's leading
position.
One could of course dismiss
Brzezinski's theories about US foreign policy and
the way to fix it as his personal delusions. This,
however, is not the case. Those who read
Brzezinski's work will find that his program is
quite similar to that of the Democratic Party and
Senator John Kerry's criticism of Bush's program
during the last presidential campaign. Indeed,
Kerry also dwelt on Bush's debasing of
democratic/liberal values as a reason for the
administration's increasing problems with
Europeans and the quagmire of the Iraq war. Thus
Brzezinski's naivete/wishful thinking is not so
much a personal characteristic as it is a
reflection of the views of an influential part of
the US elite - mostly from the Democratic camp -
who desperately tried to find an alternative to
the neo-conservative paradigm and address the
increasing problems the US faces.
While it
is becoming more and more clear that the United
States is losing its role of "workshop of the
globe" and that the neo-conservatives are unable
to solve the country's problems by military means,
Brzezinski and those who share his views believe
that the restoration of liberalism, emphasizing
America's wholesome democratic values, is the way
to solve the country's foreign/domestic problems.
This solution, in fact, is even more naive and
unworkable than that of the Bush
neo-conservatives, who, with all their inflated
visions of US might - presented of course as the
quest for the spread of democracy - still operate
in the context of real politics with emphasis on
military force rather than "values".
Thus
the reviewed book is interesting reading, not so
much because it contains a wealth of information
or sophisticated analysis but because it reflects
what the Democratic Party elite thinks. The
apparent naivete of these thoughts just indicates
the seriousness and, in many ways, insolubility of
the problems of US foreign and to some degree
domestic policy.
The Choice: Global
Domination or Global Leadership by Zbigniew
Brzezinski. New York: Basic Books, 2004. ISBN:
046500801. Price US$25; 242 pages.
Dmitry Shlapentokh, PhD, is
associate professor of history, College of Liberal
Arts and Sciences, Indiana University South
Bend.
(Copyright 2005 Asia Times
Online Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact us
for information on sales, syndication and republishing.) |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
All material on this
website is copyright and may not be republished in any form without written
permission.
© Copyright 1999 - 2005 Asia Times
Online Ltd.
|
|
Head
Office: Rm 202, Hau Fook Mansion, No. 8 Hau Fook St., Kowloon, Hong
Kong
Thailand Bureau:
11/13 Petchkasem Road, Hua Hin, Prachuab Kirikhan, Thailand 77110
|
|
|
|
