Harvard Professor Stanley Hoffman addressed a full auditorium inBarnum Hall Wednesday night, where he examined U.S. foreign policythrough the lens of Americans' sense of ideologicalsuperiority.
Born and raised in France, Hoffman used his insight intoEuropean politics to describe the major differences betweenAmerican and non-American world views. He is a 55-year veteran ofHarvard's political science department.
"The U.S. has a vision that is fiercely unipolar - only onecountry has both the resources and vision necessary [forleadership]," he said. The United States is "rather happy aboutthis."
He described this mindset as a "major difference" from the ColdWar, when America was more or less in agreement with itsnon-communist allies on foreign policy and cooperated more oftenwith international institutions.
Hoffman said other countries, notably European nations, have adifferent view of the dynamics of power, including "soft power," oreconomic clout.
"When you deal with economic power, the European Union is fairlyformidable, China is rising, Japan is a major power," he said.
Hoffman added that the United States' conception of itself asdominant may not be optimal for global well-being. "A multipolarworld may not be a disaster; it may be very useful for have morethan one sense of power for internal and external reasons," hesaid.
Hoffman said there is an "extraordinary amount of arrogance andignorance" that shapes American foreign policy.
In terms of the "American Establishment," he said, there are"people with enormous talent and intelligence, but the fundamentalconviction of having a kit of tools that everybody envies and theconviction that what Americans invented must be what everybodywants."
For example, he said that many American policymakers seem tohave the notion that "instant democracy is like instantcoffee."
"You pour grains of democracy into a glass, you put water - theelection - in it, you stir, and democracy comes out," he said.
But this is not so in world politics - democracy is very rarelyimplemented and stabilized quickly, Hoffman said, citing theexamples of Germany and Japan. These countries took years andseveral failed attempts to become stable and functional.
Hoffman again contrasted American and European standpoints onforeign policy, saying that Americans have "the very dangerousassumption [that] one size fits all" in terms of political andeconomic development.
He sided with the Europeans' more nuanced view. Considering the"diversity of pasts, experiences, of traditions and points ofview," throughout the world, Hoffman asked, "How could one model ofdevelopment be valid for all?"
Alluding to the war in Iraq, Hoffman stressed the negativeeffects that this exportation of democracy and military actionagainst terrorism could have.
"We need to fight terrorism, but in such a way that we do nottransform a struggle against a [radical] minority of Islam tostruggle against all of Islam."
Unfortunately, the United States has undermined the potentialproductive influence of international institutions, Hoffman said."The U.S. is not for international organizations that it does notcontrol."
It is necessary to take other countries' views into account whenforming policy objectives, he said. "If one wants to establish someorder, even Gulliver has to pay some attention to what Lilliputbelieves."
The U.S. media and educational system both contribute toAmericans' belief in their own ideological supremacy since bothteach too little about the rest of the world and its diverseorigins and views, he said.
Hoffman concluded by discussing alternatives to the Americanview of its own hegemony, asserting that a change in the definitionof leadership was necessary.
"The leader will listen to what the others have to say and thentry to establish a consensus," he said. "Others will not have thesense they're being dragged along or pushed outside."
He also praised continued efforts towards nation-building,development on behalf of the world's poor, and "culturaldiplomacy," or mutual exposure of American and internationalculture.
Hoffman's lecture was presented by the Institute for GlobalLeadership, which presented him with their Jean Mayer GlobalCitizenship award. The Institute gives the award to severalindividuals each year for excellence in thought and action inInternational Relations.
Professor Malak Mufti, chair of the Department of InternationalRelations and Hoffman's former student, introduced Hoffman.
After arriving at Harvard in 1955, Hoffman became a fixture ofthe political science department, serving as the chair of the Mindade Gunzburg Center for European Studies from 1969 to 1994.
The author of numerous books on international affairs, Hoffmanalso writes for The New York Review of Books and ForeignAffairs.
Mufti pointed out Hoffman's unique position as a voice ofmediation between international interests. "He has a strategicinterest that is half European and half American," he said.
While Hoffman strives to expose his American audiences toEuropean perspectives, Mufti said, he also does the reverse,explaining the American point of view to European audiences.
