East Asians worry that U.S. foreign policy will fail. Europeans worry that it will succeed
Nov. 18 issue -- I was in Singapore when President Bush's twin successes, the midterm-election results and the United Nations resolution, filled the television news, and I asked a veteran diplomat the conventional question: was he worried that President George W. Bush now had an even freer hand to do anything he wanted to? "Oh, no," the diplomat replied. "Our chief hope is to quickly conclude a free-trade pact with the United States, so this probably helps. But we’re the wrong place to ask your question. We’re hopelessly pro-American."
PERHAPS IT'S THE WRONG region. I asked a senior Malaysian politician what advice he had for Washington. His response: "Support us, forge a closer alliance with Malaysia." Traveling through Southeast Asia last week, I was struck by how differently it reacts to American power than Europe does. Even in Indonesia, a country with a tradition of xenophobic nationalism, the attitude, while a lot more prickly, is not quite that of, say, France or Russia.
East Asians worry about American heavy-handedness in the war on terror, unilateralism, poor communication with the Islamic world. In other words, they worry that American foreign policy will fail. Europeans, on the other hand, worry that American foreign policy will succeed.
Take our policy toward Iraq. If it succeeded--and Saddam Hussein were disarmed or replaced with a better regime--imagine Europe’s circumstances. It would confront an America that would be even more powerful. Where would that leave France? Europe's great powers feel an understandable competition with the United States. They once wielded huge influence across the globe, are rich and have their own ideas about ordering the world. But all they get are supporting roles in a movie produced by, directed by and starring the United States of America. (To be fair, this generalization best applies to the elites of a few key countries. Feelings in Central Europe, for example, are closer to the East Asians' than to their Western brethren's.)
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This is the heart of the world's problem with America, even for those who admire and need it. People don't like the fact that a single, distant country has so much power over their lives. I asked Azyumardi Azra, head of a major university in Indonesia, whether anti-Americanism was on the rise. "Yes," he said, "but it’s not because of any real rise in Islamic fundamentalism. After the Bali bomb blast, our president dithered, did nothing and then was pressured to act by Washington. Had she taken bold steps herself, people would have applauded. But to do what the American superpower wants, that’s humiliating."
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