Peter J. Katzenstein, Robert O. Keohane - Anti-Americanisms in World Politics
Anti-Americanisms in World Politics (Cornell Studies in Political Economy) Paperback – Illustrated, November 1, 2006
by Peter J. Katzenstein (Editor), Robert O. Keohane (Editor)
3.3 3.3 out of 5 stars 7 ratings
Anti-Americanism has been the subject of much commentary but little serious research. In response, Peter J. Katzenstein and Robert O. Keohane have assembled a distinguished group of experts, including historians, polling-data analysts, political scientists, anthropologists, and sociologists, to explore anti-Americanism in depth, using both qualitative and quantitative methods. The result is a book that probes deeply a central aspect of world politics that is frequently noted yet rarely understood.
Katzenstein and Keohane identify several quite different anti-Americanisms-liberal, social, sovereign-nationalist, and radical. Some forms of anti-Americanism respond merely to what the United States does, and could change when U.S. policies change. Other forms are reactions to what the United States is, and involve greater bias and distrust. The complexity of anti-Americanism, they argue, reflects the cultural and political complexities of American society. The analysis in this book leads to a surprising discovery: there are as many ways to be anti-American as there are ways to be American
Editorial Reviews
Review
Is anti-American sentiment as rampant as it seems' In their new edited volume, Anti-Americanisms in World Politics, international relations scholars Peter Katzenstein and Robert Keohane bring together a distinguished group of social scientists to consider how much anti-Americanism there is, and whether, in fact, anti-Americanism is any one thing at all. The plural 'anti-Americanisms' in the book's title reveals its core insight: Anti-Americanism is not a single, unitary phenomenon.... Too often commentators who have written on anti-Americanism make do with anecdotal evidence: The burning of an American flag, or a chilly electoral climate for politicians who are seen as kowtowing to United States interests, are taken as signs that anti-Americanism is on the rise. By contrast, most contributors to the Katzenstein and Keohane volume rely on quantitative evidence from large-scale social surveys. Two especially noteworthy findings emerge. First, fewer people around the globe hate the United States than might be imagined.... Second, in most countries, anti-Americanism involves more distrust than outright bias. The distinction is crucial. Where there is distrust, people may be skeptical of US motives and claims, but are open to considering the American point of view.-- Neil Gross ― Boston Globe
Review
Whereas most other books on the topic either focus on anti-Americanism in one country or analyze it as a single worldwide phenomenon, this book makes a significant contribution by explicitly comparing the intensity of anti-American views across countries and regions and by emphasizing the variety of attitudes toward America even within one society.-- Ido Oren, University of Florida
About the Author
Peter J. Katzenstein is Walter S. Carpenter, Jr. Professor of International Studies at Cornell University. His books include A World of Regions, Beyond Japan, Cultural Norms and National Security, and Small States in World Markets, all from Cornell. Robert O. Keohane is Professor of International Affairs, Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University. His books include After Hegemony: Cooperation and Discord in the World Political Economy, Power and Governance in a Partially Globalized World, and, with Joseph S. Nye, Jr., Power and Interdependence.
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Product details
Publisher : Cornell University Press; Illustrated edition (November 1, 2006)
Language : English
Paperback : 368 pages
Anti-Americanisms in World Politics (Cornell Studies in Political Economy) Paperback – Illustrated, November 1, 2006
by Peter J. Katzenstein (Editor), Robert O. Keohane (Editor)
3.3 3.3 out of 5 stars 7 ratings
Anti-Americanism has been the subject of much commentary but little serious research. In response, Peter J. Katzenstein and Robert O. Keohane have assembled a distinguished group of experts, including historians, polling-data analysts, political scientists, anthropologists, and sociologists, to explore anti-Americanism in depth, using both qualitative and quantitative methods. The result is a book that probes deeply a central aspect of world politics that is frequently noted yet rarely understood.
Katzenstein and Keohane identify several quite different anti-Americanisms-liberal, social, sovereign-nationalist, and radical. Some forms of anti-Americanism respond merely to what the United States does, and could change when U.S. policies change. Other forms are reactions to what the United States is, and involve greater bias and distrust. The complexity of anti-Americanism, they argue, reflects the cultural and political complexities of American society. The analysis in this book leads to a surprising discovery: there are as many ways to be anti-American as there are ways to be American
Editorial Reviews
Review
Is anti-American sentiment as rampant as it seems' In their new edited volume, Anti-Americanisms in World Politics, international relations scholars Peter Katzenstein and Robert Keohane bring together a distinguished group of social scientists to consider how much anti-Americanism there is, and whether, in fact, anti-Americanism is any one thing at all. The plural 'anti-Americanisms' in the book's title reveals its core insight: Anti-Americanism is not a single, unitary phenomenon.... Too often commentators who have written on anti-Americanism make do with anecdotal evidence: The burning of an American flag, or a chilly electoral climate for politicians who are seen as kowtowing to United States interests, are taken as signs that anti-Americanism is on the rise. By contrast, most contributors to the Katzenstein and Keohane volume rely on quantitative evidence from large-scale social surveys. Two especially noteworthy findings emerge. First, fewer people around the globe hate the United States than might be imagined.... Second, in most countries, anti-Americanism involves more distrust than outright bias. The distinction is crucial. Where there is distrust, people may be skeptical of US motives and claims, but are open to considering the American point of view.-- Neil Gross ― Boston Globe
Review
Whereas most other books on the topic either focus on anti-Americanism in one country or analyze it as a single worldwide phenomenon, this book makes a significant contribution by explicitly comparing the intensity of anti-American views across countries and regions and by emphasizing the variety of attitudes toward America even within one society.-- Ido Oren, University of Florida
About the Author
Peter J. Katzenstein is Walter S. Carpenter, Jr. Professor of International Studies at Cornell University. His books include A World of Regions, Beyond Japan, Cultural Norms and National Security, and Small States in World Markets, all from Cornell. Robert O. Keohane is Professor of International Affairs, Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University. His books include After Hegemony: Cooperation and Discord in the World Political Economy, Power and Governance in a Partially Globalized World, and, with Joseph S. Nye, Jr., Power and Interdependence.
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Product details
Publisher : Cornell University Press; Illustrated edition (November 1, 2006)
Language : English
Paperback : 368 pages
Top review from the United States
John F. Daniel
4.0 out of 5 stars Good but it should talk about power and American hegemony
Reviewed in the United States on April 18, 2007
Anti-Americanisms in World Politics an edited volume by Peter J. Katzenstein and Robert O. Keohane is an excellent contribution to the debate on global anti-American attitudes. Despite the breadth and depth of this work, it fails to consider American hegemony and military power as a cause of anti-American sentiment. In framing the work, the authors distinguish between "what the United States is" and "what the United States does" but this general dichotomy does not account for the effects of American hard power preeminence.
By its very nature, power is threatening to other nations regardless of its form as either an untapped or actualized asset of statecraft. Although the authors suggest that "sovereign-nationalist Anti-Americanism" is one of the four causes for anti-American attitudes, the authors frame this hostility primarily as a challenge to national identity rather than a manifestation of hard power or security competition. Although this identity-based framework is plausible, it is not sufficient to explain foreign responses to American power. In chapter 4 of the work Chiozza conducts an empirical study of the causes for anti-Americanism and finds that U.S. troop presence is not a significant factor contributing to negative attitudes towards the United States. Although this lack of significant correlation could be interpreted as evidence that American military power does not provoke anti-Americanism, such a conclusion is not warranted. In the absence of a positive finding, the opposite conclusion that troop levels do not matter is equally plausible. Unlike armies of the past, the American military does not necessarily need to have a "boots on the ground" footprint to exercise its power. Power projection and long-range strike capabilities make such traditional metrics irrelevant and unrepresentative for American power and may heighten foreign resentment of American power disparity. Clearly, a more finely honed quantitative study of this phenomenon that accounts for factors such as proximity to the United States, alliance patters, recent wars, types of forces, size and quality of the host nation's armed forces, and the duration of troop deployments is needed to quantify such a proposition. Until such a model is perfected, responses to power are still an intriguing and parsimonious independent variable to describe and predict anti-Americanism. Such a prediction that power and power disparities are a driving force behind anti-American attitudes is consistent with both realist predictions and historical models. As realists predict, power creates uncertainties and insecurities and ultimately threatens the existence of states. Assuming this level of intense security competition, it is only reasonable to expect anti-Americanism as a response to U.S. power.
This model is supported by historical examples such as Rome, Ancient China, and Imperial Britain where weaker powers have reviled the predominant power and influence of stronger states. Although such a power-centric explanation for anti-Americanism may appear repugnant or overly simplistic, it does have theoretical and historical relevance and is worthy of additional study and inclusion in Katzenstein and Keohane's otherwise impressive work.
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Don
2.0 out of 5 stars Two Stars
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 19, 2014
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Boring reading Nothing new here.
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