Yesterday, several Dartmouth professors spoke on the change in American foreign policy and the world's response to it since Sept. 11, 2001, as part of the panel series "September 11 One Year Later." The consensus: despite the expression of sympathy after the terrorist attack in the United States, the world complains about American foreign policy and fosters an increase in anti-Americanism.
Government professor Diederik Vandewalle, who moderated the panel, said in the year since the terrorist attacks, the United States has seen a "fracturing of long-term alliances."
Professor Allan Stam of the government department said though the United States itself has not changed, still maintaining the greatest material wealth and military power. American foreign policy has abandoned a multi-polar view of the world and assumed the role of a dictatorial superpower -- as a result, the United States is less likely to get any "favors," Stam said.
Professor Gene Garthwaite, who concentrated on the Middle East, attributed the change in attitude to the contradiction between American values and actual American policy. Though many Middle Eastern people hold reserved respect for American values, they know that the United States has overthrown democracies in the Middle East and in the past supported Iraq.
Garthwaite even stated that the U.S. ambassador to Iraq gave a "yellow light" on the invasion of Kuwait. He believes that the clash between Western and Middle Eastern values occurs in individuals and that Islamic fundamentalist terrorism was in decline because of its cost prior to Sept. 11.
Similarly, Americans also stereotype Middle Eastern people and wish to reform their societies to be more like America, Garthwaite said, adding that the United States also generates animosity by refusing to grant visas to Muslim and other untrusted people, who can question their own culture freely in the United States.
Garthwaite believes that war with Iraq could have the effect of overthrowing the governments of Jordan and Turkey.
Professor Marysa Navarro-Aranguren, speaking on Latin America, further emphasized the contradiction between how America views itself and how it views others. Despite initial sympathy, Latin Americans frequently said, "This was their turn" to be victims of terrorism, for Latin Americans have frequently been victims of terror, guerilla and state-sponsored killing many more people than the plane attacks on the United States, according to Navarro.
The Latin Americans are weary of war on Iraq because they have had their territory invaded by the United States numerous times, most recently during the early '90s invasion of Panama, Navarro said.
Latin Americans remember, Navarro said, that an assumed terrorist attack on the U.S. ship Maine led to the Spanish-American War and the U.S. colonialization of the Philippines, Cuba and Puerto Rico. The explosion aboard the Maine was later proven to be accidental.
Navarro noted that because of the U.S. government's preoccupation with Iraq it has ignored Mexico, whose president was once invited to Bush's Ranch and Argentina, half of whose people have fallen into poverty because of its recent financial crisis.
