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After the Empire: The Breakdown of the American Order (2003) is a bestseller in France and Germany, but has received little attention in the United States. That's not surprising, given its highly negative portrayal of the United States. Nonetheless, Americans should read it to understand why many Europeans hold such negative views of the United States.
The book's author, Emmanuel Todd, is a researcher at the French National Institute for Demographic Studies in Paris.
Mr. Todd argues that "America's real war is about economics, not terrorism." He believes that the United States "is battling to maintain its status as the world's financial center by making a symbolic show of its military might in the heart of Eurasia, thereby hoping to forget and have others ignore America's industrial weakness, its financial needs and its predatory character."
Explaining how he and many others view the impact of the war on terror, Mr. Todd writes: ". . . Instead of reinforcing the image of America's global leadership as the current administration in Washington expected, its forced march into war has produced a rapid decline in the international status of the United States" (p. xviii).
"A militaristic, agitated, uncertain, anxious country"
Ironically, after the first successful truly democratic elections in modern history in Afghanistan and Iraq, and rumblings of possible significant change in Egypt, Lebanon and the Palestinian Authority, some are reluctantly admitting that perhaps Washington's current Mideast strategy is on the right track.
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